Week 11

Monitor Shelf... installed...

TV... resting nicely....

Support for marquee backlight... dunzo...

Week 10

Woot! A very significant night!

First we got the slots cut for the t-molding and tested with a sample piece. My actual design has chrome molding but the sample piece in this picture is gold.

Then we got to work on assembling the frame of the cabinet. We got everything clamped to one side to hold it in place...

Then we put the other side on top and lined everything up and screwed it in...

Then we flipped it over and screwed in the first side and stood it up!

It is nice and sturdy and everything is square and level.

We rolled it over to the corner out of the way until next week...

Week 9

It doesn't look like much, but we actually accomplished quite a bit tonight.

1 - Cut the shelf for the TV to the same width as the base of the cabinet, and the proper depth for the TV. Having this the right dimensions before standing up the cabinet will make it easy on us in the long run.

2 - Made another Home Depot run for 1x2s and put some strips on each panel to rest the TV shelf on. Once we get the shelf built we should not be able to just sit it inside there.

3 - Put on strips for the board that will eventually support the backlight for the marquee.

4 - Removed some stripped out screws from the base and put new ones in there to support the wheels better.

5 - Cut all the 2x4 braces to the exact needed width so that all cross pieces (base, shelf, 2x4s) are the same width now.


In the photo below you can see the side panels with the extra strips and also all of the 2x4s we cut. The TV shelf is not shown...

Hopefully this thing will be standing up next week!

Week 8

Major progress tonight!

We first had to make a home depot run to pick up some 1x2 boards to attach to the insides of the cabinet as nailers for plywood and 2x4s.

Here are all the pieces cut to the right sizes:

 Marked off where all we would need to attach 2x4s and plywood...

This is a nifty little edge guide we made so that we didn't have to measure where to put each board. It makes them all the same and with about a 7/16th inset from the edges of the cabinet.

Inside of the left side of the cabinet, with all support pieces glued and screwed...

And the right side...

We put them together to see how well they match up. They match pretty well...

Symmetry...

It shouldn't be too long now until we are ready to stand this thing up. It will really start looking like an arcade machine then!

Week 7

Tonight wasn't as productive as last week, but we still knocked out some pretty significant stuff. First, we finished routing the base shelf/platform that we started on last week. We had to take a small break to go help out a friend in distress, and then we came back to work only to find out that we needed supplies.

Home Depot run...

 Then we got back, got to work, and put the wheels on the bottom. The base shelf is complete now. This will be the support for the whole thing...

Still looking nice and level...

Here is the total progress so far...

And, of course, we each had to take it for a spin...

Week 6

This week we did a little TV placement planning because I was concerned that we would get the whole thing built only to find out the TV wasn't going to fit properly with the shape of the thing. I made a poster board cutout of the profile of my TV and used it to see how the TV shape would fit with the cabinet shape. Turns out it is going to work perfectly and we didn't have to modify anything.


With that behind us we moved on to build the bottom/base of the cabinet.

Here is the tv cutout against one side of the cabinet. Plenty of room and the screen placement is good. This also allows us to figure out exactly where to put the shelf...

Using 2x4s for the bottom and some plywood to hold the corners square and flush until the top is on...

Plywood for the top screwed to the 2x4s...

The plywood had a little overhang so we had to trim it with the circular saw and the router...

Fully assembled bottom platform (wheels to be added later)...

Nice and level...

Just for kicks, we balanced this so it would stand up. Getting easier to visualize it all now. That TV cutout cracks me up but it was so helpful...

Week 5

Having gotten the two sides cut out over the last two weeks, tonight was time to trim them up to match each other. It was also time to learn how to use the router.

Testing the flush trim bit on some scrap wood...

This is how far off our two sides were from each other before routing. We intentionally cut the second one big knowing that we would trim it down to match the first...

Ash working the router...

Here I am following up the routing with some sandpaper...

When we finished them they perfectly matched each other. Twins...

We also got a start on building the bottom of the cabinet. So far we've just cut the 2x4 frame for it and we'll need to cut plywood and put that together next time. We also need to cut the slots for the t-molding pretty soon.