The first few bits of wood

So I found myself with a free afternoon on Monday, popped to the B&Q on the way home from work, and had a wander around the wood panels section - funny how much I enjoy these activities, but would mock others if they mentioned it.

MDF is 3 x the price of Chipboard.  Yes, I know, MDF has a smooth finished surface that lends itself quite nicely to arcade machines, but with a little love, effort and attention, Chipboard brushes up OK.  So chipboard I bought.

Started off by slicing it all down to 30", the width of my finished machine.

The hardest part about cutting the wood will be getting the angles right to achieve the "tilt" on the control panel.  I set the jigsaw bed to a 20 degree (ish?) tilt and this is the result:

[caption id="attachment_153" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="angles - end view"][/caption]

I took some of the 90 degree brackets, put them in the vice, and squeezed them until they matched the angle of the wood:

[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="angle brackets - bent"][/caption]

I offered them up to the angled piece to test the angle of the bracket:

[caption id="attachment_150" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="offered up to check"][/caption]

and attached the front to the tilt, like so:

[caption id="attachment_154" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="front + tilt"][/caption]

The rest of the control panel carcass was quite straight forward, cut to the design I sketched yesterday.  I used lots of the angle brackets to fix all the parts together:

[caption id="attachment_156" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="main control panel - brackets"][/caption]

You've probably noticed the line along the base - I ran out of wood! I've cobbled together a base from two off-cuts - seems overkill to make this "fresh" as it won't be seen in the finished cabinet.

I've offered all the pieces up together to see what it's gonna look like - i think it's quite true to my sketch??

[caption id="attachment_188" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="first mockup"][/caption]

I've taken tomorrow off work, so I should be able to make some progress, even though there's a dentist appointment in the middle of my morning.