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Help with folding steering wheel project please!

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Turnarcades:
Had a thought and I think for the neatest finish, create two sliding doors inside that space, sliding from the sides, then T-mould the exposed grain of the wood in that section.

Good work by the way.

Cretster:
Cheers for the feedback chief. :)

I had wondered about sliders inside, and I hadn't thought of tmolding round the edge I must admit.  Would be a nice finishing touch for sure, but I'm just not certain about leaving it with that big cutaway being visible.  I suppose it's feasible that it might just work as a 'feature' but am not really convinced I have to admit.

What I'd prefer is L section 'doors' (ie across front panel and back underneath) that slide in to the middle across the front.
Doddle to make those of course, but what I can't envisage is how to make them slide smoothly, or even better both move at the same time (ie push one and the other goes too).
I have some powerful 1/4 scale servos but I don't know how I could get the to do it.

Also have a small lathe and mill so in theory I can machine basic metal parts if needed.

Cretster:
Well I've done a bunch more this weekend so things are coming on nicely.

I received the vinyl wood effect roll for covering the cab  - looks good but thinner than I expected so I really will have to spend time on surface finish before I apply it.

I have successfully repaired the lilliput monitor after I found it was not displaying red via the vga input.  As expected it was the plug where the cable joins the board - one of the pins had broken free from the plug.  I'd glued it all unfortunately, so in the process of unpicking all the glue to get to the connector, I went through 2 more of the wires.  It's fixed now though and works just fine. :) 
You can see how it looks in the pics below.

My friend was round earlier (he is lucky enough to own a prebuilt mame cabinet that his boss bought him!) and I asked him about how I could hide the cutout in the front.  He suggested making a smaller cutout that would look less conspicuous by cutting a slot in the steering wheel housing.
Didn't like the plan at first but I decided to try it and I like the results.

Still looks ok with the wheel in situ:


But when it's folded away there is now a rectangular shape hole that is a lot smaller and a lot less weird looking than the previous version:


Also, I've cutout the holes either side of the screen for the tweeters to mount, and have mounted the amp below the cupboard section on its own shelf.  The amp is boxed in so that it can't really move around except to come forwards (and out if need be) - makes it look more like it's meant to be there.  Sorry you can't really see it in this pic (should use proper camera not phone!)

I've also chopped the front corners off the control panel to make them curved.  It looks better and is less likely to cause a painful rib injury!  :o

I've added a small red pushbutton to the right of the screen which will be the main PC power button.  Might get some more and have a mini panel there for various bits.

Have also begun putting filler in some of the screw holes, although I'm way about doing them all in case I suddenly think there's a need to have bits removed from it temporarily for any reason.

I have a piece of acrylic cut out for the marquee now too.  It's only 2mm thick so very flexible, but the main thing that worries me with the marquee is how I hold it in place, and do a neat job of it.  Any suggestions?

Am thinking that I'd like to use some of this acrylic sheet to cover the control panel and add graphics beneath it, but I'm not sure how people go about securing such stuff in place when they do this.  Does it mean it has to have some sort of frame over it to lock it down?  I had an idea about a bunch of red anodised cap head allen bolts around the perimeter of the control panel to hold it down but I'm not convinced yet, so I'd be grateful of comments about that too. :)

Turnarcades:
Adding an acrylic overlay at this point will be tricky as they're best cut when the control panel wood is to get the best alignment and resist shattering. If you do decide to do it, use Lexan (not acrylics like perspex), lay it over the blank panel and use small pilot holes drilled at high speed, then use a flush trim router bit inserted in the hole and worked out to the proper hole widths. Holding it down is not a problem as the buttons do a good enough job of holding it firmly down, though usual practice is to T-mould the edge of the panel, overlapping the lexan edges to prevent lifting at the edges.

As long as your shell is structurally sound, fill those holes as fixings can be done from the insides using L-brackets if necessary, and if covering them over you wil want to fill and sand them flat.

For the marquee acrylic, either buy some proper marquee retainers online or DIY it using some type of edging strip. With the wood-grain look of your cabinet, I'd recommend some 28mm L-piece trim in natural timber from B&Q. They come in long L-shaped strips, so just cut them to the width of your cabinet, screw them into the top panel and lower marquee panel and they will grip the marquee arylic and artwork in place, pulling the upper and lower edges of the acrylic flat against the edges of those panels like so:

Cretster:
Thanks for that Craig - I did consider last night actually that some sort of L profile stuff would probably be as good as it'll get for holding in the marquee.  It sounds like that will indeed be the best option so thanks for clarifying that.  I'll still have to do two small blanking bits for the ends (since the acrylic is 60cm wide but the gap is 65cm) but they'll be covered by the top & bottom pieces too so no worries there.

I know my local B&Q have a rack of stuff like that so I can hopefully get some on the way home tonight along with some sort of gloss black or satin black paint for covering bits that won't have the vinyl covering.

I believe my neons/cathode tubes have arrived today too.  2x 12" white ones for the marquee illumination, and 2x red ones for hopefully getting a bit of exterior glow from the cabinet onto the back wall and floor where it will live.

I would have used polycarb but I wanted to get some stuff there and then, and B&Q only have acrylic worse luck.  It does however seem to be pretty forgiving stuff, but I'll not say too much until I get a control panel overlay actually cut!

I'm wondering if it's possible to pass light into the acrylic that goes over the control panel, in order to illuminate the graphics beneath.  Probably yes but I expect it's something I'd have had to have worked towards earlier on really, and could be tricky to implement at this stage.  Possibly something for a 'Phase 2' control panel at some point.....

Main thing I need to scratch my head about now, is how to have some sort of flap to cover that gap in the front panel, so it looks better.  It's not too straightforward because of the way the wheel goes in position but I'm sure it's doable to look neat somehow.....

Ideas welcome for that one!

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