First Woodwork

So, about time I got to building this thing?!

I took 2 sheets of 9mm (3/8") MDF, lay one on top of the other, and clamped the together at the factory corner/sides (i.e. sides I can be relatively sure are straight and square)

I drew out the design I wanted for the top section of the cabinet (read my post on Motivations for more details) using my trusty protractor and a steel rule.



DO THIS DIFFERENTLY: I jigsawed out the design as accurately as I could, and because it was free-hand, there was the odd slip here and there. On reflection, I should have jigsawed out the pattern wide of the lines, and used my flush-trimming bit on the router at the final construction stage to bring the sides in flush with the body - I'll describe this better in a later post.

As above, the final pair of sides were not as accurate as I'd have liked, but they will suffice for now (I intend to tidy them up much more in the final stages) so I set about installing the "batons"

The diagram I will upload at a later date does much to explain this than I can in words, but here goes. For each of the panels that will bridge between the two sides, I measured the thickness of the panel (remembering to include the thickness of any perspex sheeting where applicable - such as the control panel) and scored a line on the inside of each side panel to match the thickness of the bridging panel, plus a few millimetres spare, so that I can tidy up the sides later.

For example, the control panel is 9mm MDF, with 6mm Perspex=15mm - on each side-panel, where the control panel will bridge the two sides, I scored a line at 15 (+3 spare) mm on the inside of the side-panels. This line represents where I want the bottom of the control panel to connect to each side.



I took my stock of 1" sq. batons made earlier, cut to the "depth" of each "bridge" panel and installed them using the lines I had drawn on the side-panels, so that each "bridge" panel would sit on the baton at the right position.

Like I said earlier, much easier to explain using the pictures! :-p

At this stage, I have my two side-panels cut to the right shape, and installed with batons for fixing the "bridge" panels, so I quickly dropped in a couple of lengths of 1" sq just to get a look at the size of the final cabinet.



My heart skipt a beat!