Shaping Up

It is hard to believe that a month has gone by since my last post. I've certainly been immersed in the project since then, managing two or three evenings a week out in the garage. Ann had to give me my Christmas present early - a propane heater, so I could continue working in comfort during the cold temps that have been upon us.

Since my last post, the next thing I worked on was putting the TV in the cabinet for a test fit. It was now time to see if all of my careful planning an measurements paid off. I could not have planned any better. A perfect fit all around:
I then began working on the keyboard drawer and bottom cabinet door. It was the door that caused the greatest problem. I was going to mount it as a traditional swing-out cabinet door. Several hinge styles later, I was still having problems with the door sagging. The hinges were not strong enough for such a wide, heavy door. I finally went with a piano hinge at the bottom so the door swings open "oven door" style. It is far sturdier and I encountered no problems mounting it. The mounting did however go against some of my original plans and caused a gap I did not plan on, but I figured the space would act as a cold air inlet for the circulating fan that will be placed in the top of the cabinet.

The keyboard drawer is a simple low profile construction that is more of a tray than a drawer. It required some minor tweaking, but ended up going in okay. I also cut and did a test fit for the board that will serve as the bezel. Here is a picture:

All that was left was to cut the opening for the screen and install the last board above it. After some time out in the garage today, here is what I consider to be the finished cabinet:


A different angle:

That's right.....the cabinet construction is finished as far as I'm concerned. Sure, there are minor things that still need attention, but I'll address those when I disassemble and laminate it. In the meanwhile, I feel my next step will be the control panel. I figure that should take a little bit of time with the layout and all. I'll probably order a couple sheets of laminate so that I can work on the laminating in between. I might have a little down time during the the control panel construction and ordering some parts.