The next stage! The control panel is not fixed yet. I left it out to make drilling easier. I printed out templates and placed them on the panel and stood in arcade person pose to see how much room I would need either side. With the controls tilted slightly either side, it's fairly roomy. Now, here begins a mistake. I won't say what it is yet.
Drilling out a control panel is really nasty, soooo dusty. This has to be done outside and wearing a mask. The buttons I have for this are for 28mm holes. I centre punched all of them through the template, then drilled a small pilot hole. I used a spade bit for these holes, I would prefer a Forstner bit but I don't have one that size. They are not as readily available in the UK for some reason. The spade bit did a decent job, as long as you drill partway through one side and then go at it from the other side it ends up fine.
Done. Joystick holes are also 28 mm.
I decided to sort out some mounting for the screen. The pale strip along the top has dire warnings about not touching it. I tried not to but almost every time I handled the screen I would accidentally grab it right there. It did no harm and I was never electrocuted. Probably a good idea not to though.
First time with the screen in place. I was very happy with this. Its TINY!
The mountings for the screen. They are all just screwed in, but the screws extend through those pine supports into the MDF, its a very strong fixing. Eight screws along the top. I put that many in as the bottom would not have a lot of room for many fixings. At the end of the build these are glued too. The top fixings are only against the metal of the screen housing and not touching that delicate strip. You can see the screen controls hanging down at the bottom, later these will be hot glued in place.
I followed some advice for sealing MDF edges. In the past I have sealed these with a 50/50 mix of PVA and water. Apparently sealing them with good ole primer does as good a job. It was ok, I think PVA is better, but there's very little in it. Anyway. paint is starting to go on! All the edges for now.
Back door and control panel edges get the same treatment.
Nail holes being filled.
More filled nail holes around the bezel. A few of these were proud of the surface and needed a friendly tap to get them flush.
Base door, control panel (complete with mistake) and back door.
This was meant to be a finger hole for removing the back door, in the end it turned into a hole for the fan.
And the first coat of primer. I used Leyland Acrylic primer. It's really nice to paint with. NOTHING will cover MDF in one coat, it's incredibly absorptive?
Makes me sad seeing the wasted work going into that control panel.
I later added feet to the base. Two of them on this panel and two on the base door.
Getting all confident now. It's looking pretty sweet.
And this is where I made the mistake I'd made earlier much worse. For some strange reason I decided to glue the control panel into place. No idea why. Probably just impatience and a little arrogance. Lesson learned.
More soon!
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