It's plenty strong. The top of the control panel, the side peices and the very front of the underside are all glued and nailed together. Then that like 2 inch peice on the underside which added a lot of support is connected to another peice on the underside with the original hinge. I had to take my dremel and slightly modify the hinge. So it still flips right open so you can get in and mess with the controls. The main problem I had with it was that it was front heavy. The original control panel and the one I built before the one that is on there sat back fine and didn't need anthing to keep them from falling forward. On the current one I added those little lock things for cabinet doors. So when you put it up it clips into place and stays.