I finally finished painting. It's proving to be my least favorite aspect of working on cabinets. I'm happy with this paint job overall, it just takes so long. It would take me approximately 30 minutes to paint the cabinet (including clean up) and I'd have to wait a full day to do anything else on it.
Now on to the electrical work! I purchased a 13" flourescent at Wal-mart for $8, I hacked some existing speakers I had, and I installed an exhaust fan. Here are some pictures of the tight fit in the marquee area:
I secured the bulbs with some velcro and a couple screws. I secured the speakers with some screws. There is some black cloth that will hopefully filter some of the light coming through the speaker holes.
Here is a shot of the back and the exhaust fan:
I actually had to install this fan twice. I installed it incorrectly the first time and it was pulling air in instead of pulling it out. I thought I could switch the ground/positive and have it work in reverse but it didn't work. I had to disassemble the top portion of the cab to fix it. It's working now. The fan has 4 LED's in it and glows red, but you can hardly see it since the light from the flourescent lights up the marquee compartment.
Here is a shot of the cabinet partially installed with everything. You'll see the laptop on the base. I've removed as much from it as I can. I've pulled the battery, most of the case, and the screen. Knocked out about 3lbs.
I had some of these disco LED's leftover from my jukebox project. For the hell of it, I attached them to the bottom of this cabinet.
They create a glowing effect under the cabinet. It may be something that gets on my nerves later and I disable, but it has a pretty cool wow factor...
And here is a shot of the back. I attached it with some hinges and I'm trying to decide how I intend to lock it shut.
I probably won't get to work on it tomorrow. None of my controls came in this weekend.
I'll try to have it done by thanksgiving so I can focus on the move.