The Monitor Section

This morning, the case and the monitor section.

Just to finish off the case section, drilled some "intake" holes for the ventilation near the bottom of the front panel of the case, then a quick coat of MDF primer (I know it's chipboard, but it does a great job of lifting the loose fibres, so a quick sand, then paint, and you do get a really good finish on a really rough piece of wood) and 2 coats of black spray paint, and thus:

On to the monitor.

Another trip to the B&Q and another effort to find a "saw-dodger" (see previous post for the definition of a saw-dodger) and a 6'x2' sheet is cut into 2 x 30"x2' and a 12"x2' off-cut, thus:



Found the centre of one of the big panels by marking corner-to-corner, then accurately measured the visible area on the front of the monitor (the screen of the monitor if you will) and carefully measured and marked it onto the panel, thus:



WARNING - DON'T COPY THE NEXT PART - you'll see why in a bit.

Drilled the four corners to get the jigsaw in, thus:



Turned the jigsaw blade to 45 degrees, to give a better viewing angle on the screen, and a better finish on the panel, and tested with a small cut, thus:



Spot the problem? I want to bevel the sides, but I've drilled straight down.  Bugger.  The four edges will look good, but the corners are just wrong - no other word for it.  If I was dedicated and doing this for someone else, I'd start this panel again, but as I've said earlier, some sacrifices are being made, and I want this finished.  I want to say that this gives the thing character, these little problems, but I'm just in a bit more of a relaxed mood about these things nowadays.  So it looks like this:



I've trimmed the bottom edge at around 15 degrees so that the monitor panel "leans back" into the machine, so that taller users should get a better viewing experience.

TIP FOR THE FUTURE: I haven't leaned it back enough, that, or I haven't built it tall enough because I am having minor viewing issues with the finished box.

2 coats of MDF primer and 2 coats of black spray paint.

Propped the monitor panel on the top of the case and control panel and this is what I've got:



Is it just me, or is this starting to look like an arcade machine??? :-)

Sides for the monitor panel next.  Using one of the off-cuts, offered up the piece to the side of the monitor and marked out the size and shape of the sides for the monitor.  Cut them, and offered them up to check the fit:



Lay the monitor panel on the floor and glued and screwed to put it together:



That'll do for today - pick it up again in the morning when it's time to get the screen in, I reckon.