This weekend saw some more progress with the construction of the new cabinet. The hold up this week had been getting access to the super saws to chew through those massive 2400×1200 MDF sheets into the required panels needed. Late last week, my father in law dropped off some of his awesome saws for a loan. These things make the job of cutting up those 2400×1200 sheets easy as – plus fun (It’s not visible, but there is a saw that sits up from below on the orange table. With the correct sizes marked on the sheets, its just a matter of pushing them through to get a nice straight cut).
With the tools set up, it was time do get to work. I printed out a copy of the cut list (shown in a previous post) and sliced the MDF and pine up. In the end, I’ve been left with two piles of wood. The pile on the left is all the off cuts from this project and the previous one – almost enough there to produce some kind of mini cab (one project at a time though ) The pile on the right is just about everything I should need for this cab. There will be some additional pine needed for internal rails for the screen acrylic to sit on, along with some inner border around the custom coin door. But there is plenty left over to cover it all.
With everything cut up and time running out for the day, I decided to get to work on the custom coin door since it’s a smaller task. One mistake I made last time (with my previous cab), was doing things like the coin door, coin catcher (which sits directly below the door – attached to the front panel), IEC switch hole, vent holes and speaker hole AFTER the cab was assembled. This time I am cutting these all up before assembly to avoid cutting things side on, upside down, or having to get a drill in at tight angles.
With the coin door, I decided to cut up the exact size and shape I wanted first. After that, I wanted to create a template that I could use to cut out the exact square from the front panel. This meant I needed to factor in the trim and hinge to allow the correct amount of space. With it all measured out, a slightly larger square was cut. The final bit of work on that this week was to measure up exactly where to put it on the front panel.
With no current road blocks, next weekend should be a busy one. I plan to:
– cut out the hole for the coin door in the front panel
– cut out holes for the speaker and rear vents
– cut out the IEC switch hole
– properly cut up the side panels to the exact shape and maybe one or two other small clean up bits on the back panels. If I find time after work once night, I will get a pencil design down for the side panel shape.
I also plan to cut the t molding groove before assembly this time too. That will probably take place in 2 weeks time.