The Cabinet has two have two compartments, each showing off the computer inside. It has to show off the computers, it has to have good ventilation (after the experience I've had with the Wurlitzer PC). I decided to back to a shape that failed me before, the cube.
The skeleton of the cabinet is an inverted T, made of a pressed board covered with melamine. It's easy to work with, comparatively cheap, and had the white side I'd want for half of the cabinet.
The cube will be two feet on each edge, so this was easy to make from a 2' x 4' sheet of melamine. There is an opening, six inches square, to send cables through.
I also added round-ball casters at this stage, so the completed project can be easily moved around.
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Three pieces of 1/8" pressed board are attached to the skeleton, leaving the two compartments open. I was able to buy the pieces pre-cut to 2' x 2' at the local Home Depot, so all that was necessary was to attach the pieces and cut out the fan holes, cable hole, and optical drive holes.
Originally, the sides were going to be plexiglass, but I found plexiglass more problematical to work with than I expected. So, I reverted to wood.
During this step, not for the last time, I wondered why I added the casters so early. When I try to drill a hole into a cabinet, I'm not used to having it skitter away.
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I covered the two sides with these big rolls of thin plastic I bought online. The plastic comes with an adhesive back, so all I had to do was cut roughly to size, remove the paper backing, and carefully put it in place.
This step would have been much, much easier with an assistant or two, to hold the plastic up while I positioned it on the line. But, the adhesive isn't that strong, so I was able to reposition the plastic a few times.
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The doors were made by taking a piece of the thin plastic, cutting out the window shape, and mounting it between two pieces of 1/8" plexiglass. It worked fairly well, but I never was able to get all the wrinkles and air bubbles out.
I printed out shapes for the windows on my printer, and traced them with a razor blade to cut out the holes. They came out cleanly. I've still got the parts I cut out, to see if I would want to use the shapes again in the project.
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The slides for the doors are actually designed for holding hanging file folders in wood file cabinets. I used epoxy to attach the slides to the cabinet.
The doors are opened by pulling up on the two brass door handles that I picked up at the WoodSmiths Store.
The cabinet took a weekend to create. Because of the plastic, no painting, so no need to wait for paint to dry.
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