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paulscade - First Build - MAME - Blastoff!
clockwork:
Looking really good. Nice, clean, solid. I haven't been counting the hours I'm spending. If I did, I'd cry.
paulscade:
... and what an UGLY box is was.
The longer I had it sitting on the cabinet, the more I hated it.
Needless to say... that control panel box now sits in the garage holding household cleaners.
I decided that 3.5 hours wasn't that much time to throw away so a redesign was in order. BUT... I had used up the larger scraps of MDF. It was time to visit the store for some more MDF. Luckily, I still had a largish piece of 5/8" for the control panel top (perfect, as once I add plexi, it's be the perfect 3/4" for the T-molding).
I decided to build the new control panel box from 3/4" MDF (mainly because I wasn't about to special order a sheet of 5/8" just for a control panel).
When I went to the check out at Home Depot, my 1/4 sheet of 3/4" MDF rang up at about $27. Ouch. I knew that there was a problem so I took it back to the racks and found a sales person. It happened that my little piece of MDF had the barcode for the entire sheet attached. I suppose that they forgot to remove it when the cut the sheet into pieces.
With his trusty can of spray paint, the salesperson sprayed over the bardcode and said... there!... now it's $1. Excellent... "such a deal". I was happy.
With my wood in hand... I started my redesign.
This time... I'm going to add some character.
I also realized that I didn't have any slant on the UGLY box... so this new one is 1 inch lower in the front than in the back.
This one took me 6 hours on Memorial Day to build.
paulscade:
I needed to finish up the top of the cabinet a bit... in the speaker mount area. I was searching and searching for just the right speakers. I've read posting after posting. I wanted the speakers to be as low as possible so as not to interfer with the [future] light in the marquee area. I just couldn't find any PC speakers anywhere [that made me happy].
So... I decided on some car speakers. Sony Explod 5 1/4". I found a nice 40W per channel amplifier on e-bay to drive them.... NOW I can cut the holes and finish the top.
paulscade:
I also cut out the control panel top from that 5/8" MDF.
I decided to allow 1/2" overhang on the left and right... and 3/4" in the front.
I used an old cookie can to trace out the rounded corners.
paulscade:
Hardware... oh, yea... I'll be needing some hardware...
I went hunting around for some way to mount the control panel box onto the cabinet. Yes, I know that Happ sells those panel latches (and I'm not sure, I may still need some of those). I found these friction catches at www.rockler.com . I mounted them and the panel now snaps into place. I used 4 of them. Since the catch uses a "pin and socket" sort of design, I didn't want my panel to be sitting on pins (the part of the catch that's mounted to the bottom of the control panel) when it's removed from the cabinet. I decided to place two pieces of MDF (one on each side) on the bottom of the control panel. I cut them at an angle so the panel really does center itself as it snaps.