Wednesday, August 29, 2001
The trip to Home Depot will take place later today (currently 12:30am...). I plan on hitting the sack soon and will be looking forward to getting started tomorrow.
9:45am - Went to Home Depot to pick up some 5/8" particle board. Unfortunately, it was just me at the store and getting 3 sheets onto the cart took some doing and the employees just standing around didn't offer to help. No worries - I accomplished the feat and took the sheets to the front to pay, only on arriving at the cashier, I learned they were 1/2" instead of 5/8". Not wanting to go put the sheets back and then get three new ones, I settled on the 1/2" and paid. Total cost: (3 x $10.98 + tax) = $35.41.
10:30am - Arrived at my house, unloaded the wood and set to work. I was able to cut out all pieces on 2 of the 3 boards. The third will have to wait until next week. The main accomplishment was that I got the control panel box cut out and assembled (after one bad try). One side of the cabinet is cut out along with most of the base plates. Work will continue next week as I need to make another trip to Home Depot to get some hinges for the control box top, for easy access to the interface under the controls. I also need some L brackets to reinforce the cabinet in pretty much every place I think it's needed.
8:30pm - Headed off to Home Depot once again - picked up some "L" corner brackets along with a couple of braces and some hinges for the control panel so that I can easily access the underside once it's all in place. Total cost for this trip: $10.35.
9:45am - Went to Home Depot to pick up some 5/8" particle board. Unfortunately, it was just me at the store and getting 3 sheets onto the cart took some doing and the employees just standing around didn't offer to help. No worries - I accomplished the feat and took the sheets to the front to pay, only on arriving at the cashier, I learned they were 1/2" instead of 5/8". Not wanting to go put the sheets back and then get three new ones, I settled on the 1/2" and paid. Total cost: (3 x $10.98 + tax) = $35.41.
10:30am - Arrived at my house, unloaded the wood and set to work. I was able to cut out all pieces on 2 of the 3 boards. The third will have to wait until next week. The main accomplishment was that I got the control panel box cut out and assembled (after one bad try). One side of the cabinet is cut out along with most of the base plates. Work will continue next week as I need to make another trip to Home Depot to get some hinges for the control box top, for easy access to the interface under the controls. I also need some L brackets to reinforce the cabinet in pretty much every place I think it's needed.
8:30pm - Headed off to Home Depot once again - picked up some "L" corner brackets along with a couple of braces and some hinges for the control panel so that I can easily access the underside once it's all in place. Total cost for this trip: $10.35.
- Just a shot of the garage floor as I was just about to finish up. The control panel box can be seen at the top of the picture. Lying around on the floor are the plans used to build the box.
- These are just some of the panels I cut out. Most notably the coin door and some of the rear panels for the cabinet. The only uncut board can be seen on the ground as I was just about to sketch out the cuts for next week.
- This is one side of the cabinet. It's just a rough outline as I will cut away above the ledge that can be seen on the left to create a place to drop in the TV. Also, the upper-right corner will be cut off diagonally - 16 inches down, and 16 inches to the left.
- This is the box that most of the control wires will sit in. The control panel will be hinged and rest on top of this box. Holes will be cut to allow for the wires to pass through to the guts of the system.
- I made most of the cuts using the table saw pictured with the help of the two Tote-A-Horses (great products).
- Cuts that were too long for the table saw were made with the rotary saw lying on the ground.
- A shot of the garage from the driveway. One side of the cabinet is pictured in the back with the control panel box in the foreground. On the left side of the picture is the board that will make the other side of the cabinet.
