Monitor panel - Part 3 - Installing the Monitor

So Saturday came with little to do and little cash to do it with (the last payday seems soooo long ago), so "she-who-must-be-obeyed" signed my permission slip for a couple of hours work on this project.

The Process:

1. I flipped the monitor panel face down and put a couple of layers of black insulation tape in the bezel-ed bit of the panel, so that the rough chipboard wouldn't scratch the monitor (it needs to be worth something on eBay one day!) -


2. Dropped the panel in to check that the insulation tape hadn't upset the fit and ready for fixing -


3. I have a bag of these "self adhesive black base 25mm cable tie mounts" (aka the mounts) from Screwfix which are sticky-backed and have the bonus of a countersunk screw hole in the middle - - so that not only can you rely on the very sticky backs holding them in place, a 1/2" (~13mm) screw through each one - - and I'm fairly confident a few of these will more than hold the monitor securely, without the screw points bursting through the other side.


4. The cable ties I will use are heavy duty, thick, strong, etc. not your bargain basement stuff. I'll need three per span - two un-abused, and the "lock bit" from the end of the third -


5. First cable tie - thread one through one mount, join with a second, thread the second through the opposite mount, and "lock" with the end piece of a third tie - - get as much tension as you're happy with on the ties - the mounts should hold firmly as they're screwed down, but I don't want to stress them more than I have to, and trim the ends.


6. Repeat 5 times - - overkill? maybe, and I'm not 100% on the positioning - the ties that do not cross the center are too close to the edges for my liking, but they will reinforce the others in this "mesh" format.


7. Offer the panel into the cabinet and top with perspex for a photo-call - - nice!


8. This particular monitor has a habit of occasionally powering up in "standby" rather than "on" - as such I've drilled a 1.5mm (small) hole in line with the standby button - - so I can access this with a straightened paperclip if needs be - I could have done this for all the monitor controls, but I think that's overkill for me - I'll have to remember to carefully drill a hole through the perspex in exactly the right place to line up with the hole in the wood, after the panel is installed.

DO THIS DIFFERENTLY - it's only when I come to look at the next panel (the speaker panel) that I realise the monitor panel and perspex will need to go back to the workshop and passed over the table saw to get and angle on the edge which meets the monitor panel. As such, I'll need to re-wrap the perspex for protection, remove the monitor, and protect my nicely painted monitor panel - a pain and a waste of cable ties. So, if you're at this stage DO NOT PAINT THE PANEL, DO NOT MOUNT THE MONITOR, and DO NOT REMOVE THE PERSPEX PLASTIC until you're happy with the fit of this panel in respect of the two panels it neighbours.