I even enlisted the help of she who must not be named ((my wife) who has requested not to be anyway) with further construction, as she is a self proclaimed expert at adding vinyl! More on that later though; so, with a bit more drilling out, and a few screws, we now have a constructed control panel, that just needed a slight bit of filling to bring it up to useable standards...
So, some filler, some sanding and a spot of paint at the corners of the inner bezel for inside the glass (to hide where the monitor will sit) and we're left with...
While waiting for the filler to harden, it's time to test fit the speakers and wire up (can't test yet, sadly, mini amp has yet to arrive... up to THREE weeks! Can you believe that rubbish? Shipping from HK, and up to THREE weeks to get here, now that's just slack, wonder who's flying that plane!):
NOTE: as This is MDF, always make sure you drill pilot holes for screws otherwise you risk splitting it, which is A: Costly, and B: Time consuming if you've already cut to size
Speakers are as far along as they can be, don't worry about that front panel, there is a grill that will be covering it, which is why it's a bit scruffy looking (almost like a Nerf Herder?)
Anyway, back to the real work of the day; Vinyl has arrived for the inner bezel and the Control Panel, so onwards I hear you cry... Well yes, only, my wife is a self proclaimed expert at this, so in an excited voice, I got the "can I help" (by the end it was more like "just let me get it finished") so, here we go, bezel and CP fitout with a lot of help from the lovely lady...
Is it me, or does she already look tense? Don't think she liked me helping with my project at this point! At least she's got the hang of the X-Acto knife, treat it with respect, or it will cut you, and make your life unhappy at best! These are sharp craft blades, and highly dangerous if you're not very careful, I can't emphasise enough here; be careful with it, treat it with the same respect you'd give any power tool! Or any other tool for that matter.
Anyway, enough talk; how did it turn out, what does it look like fitted... Well, here it is sans glass and front bezel (hasn't arrived yet) as the glass was to reflective for a good photo in the sun today:
Now onto the hard part... Control panel:
Okay, Not as bad as we thought; just time consuming to say the least, and there's that great big trackball hole that really isn't a square, oh no it's not, that just keeps coming back to annoy me!!!! Now to button / trackball / joystick fit out... Back to me...
Since it was nearly dinner time, and I have (quite clearly) invaded the dinner table; I only had time to quickly wire up and test the trackball as below, but there we have it... A constructive shopping day for my wife, followed by a constructive day of construction for me after that! Haven't wired the buttons up yet, but I'll get to that in good time... Test run of trackball...
... And goodnight! No more project work today :)
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