Big Update!

Having had a week off from work, I've had a chance to really crack on with the cab. Got lots done this week, so not had time for blog updates! So without further ado...

TUESDAY

After a bit of a rest from a weekend away, Tuesday afternoon began with cutting out the control panel. This went well as you can see below... or so I thought! The more experienced cabinet makers looking at this pic will spot the deliberate mistake. For the rest of you, just marvel at some fine drilling!


After drilling the wood, I then sandwiched a piece of 'Lexan' (like Plexi-Glass) between a piece of scrap wood and the freshly drilled panel to recreate the holes in what will be the top of the control panel.

From what I have read, this can be tricky with the plastic cracking whilst being drilled, but I took my time (and it took some time!), but again, it came out well.


WEDNESDAY

After finishing the drilling, I then painted the cabinet on Wednesday and left it to dry completely, which lost a day....

THURSDAY

Now then, as I mentioned a bit above, the more experienced cab builders would have recognised a big error - the large diamond shaped hole in the middle of the wood is a space for the trackball unit to go.

Having used the router properly for the first time, I was dead chuffed how this went... until I realised I'd routed the hole upside down!!! I didnt think to check the orientation of the trackball unit and now my neat work was ruined! The only choice apart from starting the panel again, was to make the diamond shaped hole a square and losing some stability in the trackball unit.

So I routed out a square shape and whilst at it, routed out a space for the joystick units to install...



Ah well, its not so bad!

FRIDAY

Few jobs for today - find some wiring (harder than I thought) and get everything ready to be wired. I had decided earlier in the week to not have a 'Control Panel Overlay' (which is basically graphics to go under the plastic top of the control panel - making it look nicer.

I was going to just paint it black ("...I see a red door...", sorry!) with the glass on top and have the silver t-molding round the edges.

I'd toyed with a few overlay ideas, but couldnt really get anything nailed down that I liked. I thought I'd have one last go before I started constructing the panel and I had some time to kill. With Claires assistance, we managed to come up with something we both liked at the last minute! I'm not a real big Sci-Fi fan, but the space scene seems to suit this cab - its mainly black, a bit of silver, some muted colours and of course the old skool Space Invaders.

I phoned up our local printers (Print Hub) and big thanks to them for printing this up for me straight away...

(Click for bigger image)

Again, a frustrating wait now for the overlay to fully dry, so I carried on getting ready for the wiring.

To be continued...