Ok lots of updates today.
Well when the doors and cabinet stuff was done it was time to do some semi detail work.
In the first image you can see how the pine top/bottom rails contrasted with the plywood rib, so I just made a veneer with the thin plywood I used for the skin. The veneer was just glued on, I applied glue to the back of them and used some scrap wood and clamps to hold it there and let the glue set/dry for 24 hours (sorry forgot to take pix of the process). I then sanded the edges down to smooth them out and round them off:
In these 2 shots you can see the how everything had progressed up to this point (except for the skin over the inner part of the cabinets).
Now I needed to make a vent on the computer cover. I measured where the CPU, RAM and video card will sit in the computer box and marked up the top panel. I cut out a rough opening with a jigsaw then refined the edge with a router in the same way I did with the front panel screen frame, including a small bevel. On the back I used the router again and made a shallow rabbet cut for the screen to sit into. I then stapled the screen in place. The screen was the front of my Antec 300 tower case:
Next thing I did was cut some pieces of the skin plywood to cover the inner side of the cabinets and attached them (again I forgot to take pix, at this point I just wanted to finish!)
Big commitment was next… STAINING!!! Woo Hoo! Almost done!
Now as this whole build was influenced by WW2 fighters I decided on an olive(ish) green for the exterior, black for the panel and white for the interior. WW2 cockpits normally used a very light green on the inside, but I didn't want that much green and I wanted as much brightness as I could get for the inside. I used Minwax water based stain, it’s very reasonably priced, has very low odor and drys fast, I also like using stain because you can still see wood grain through the color. I did a first coat, very lightly sanded the stained piece with 150 grit sandpaper, then applied a second coat.
Front view of sides:
Rear view (the 2 large holes will be explained later):
Front with doors off:
I know there are panel gaps with the inner skin. I didn’t glue these panels in. I left it that way because I wanted to see how the cabinets worked in situation. If I needed to change anything later I could easily remove the screws holding it on and make adjustments.
With top part on. The 2 small holes in the front screen will be explained in the next update:
The small hole on the right is for securing the monitor mount (and you can see a circular impression in the plywood of the test fit…):