Gluing the Front Panel to the Shell

Well here we are... after about 2 months of working on the front panel it was finally time to glue it to the shell. This took much longer than I thought it would since I had to remove some extra material around where the monitor opening was so that the monitor would be able to fit in there.

I placed the panel on top and then just used a pencil to outline where I needed to cut. You can see the pencil marks in the next two pictures. I wasn't too worried about making a nice straight line or the cleanest cut since it will all be hidden.

Once I had everything laid out I just used my jigsaw and router (freehand!) to cut as close to the line as possible. The one thing I definitely didn't want to do was cut through the side or something and ruin the shell!

Once the shell was cut properly, I carefully lined everything up and then actually tried installing the monitor. It was a good thing that I did. There were two metal brackets which did not affect the installation into the front panel (I didn't have to account for them) but they would definitely be in the way once the front panel was glued to the shell. I measured the brackets and removed a little bit more material.

Finally, using some wood glue, some clamps and a cinder block I attached the front panel to the shell and let it dry overnight. There's no turning back now!

Lining everything up was tricky. Since there was about 3(!) months between making the shell and cutting the front panel to actually gluing the front panel in place it didn't line up perfect. I think I am splitting hairs though because you can only notice when you rub your finger over the edge. The laminate should go on evenly though (I hope!).

Here are a couple of interior shots so you can see what a mess it is in there. In the bottom left hand corner of the second picture you can see the additional notch I had to cut for the monitor's mounting bracket. I'm really glad I checked before gluing!

Finally, here are some shots of the front panel glued to the shell. It's funny - this thing looks almost exactly like it did 2 months ago!

As soon as the laminate arrives from Home Depot I will glue it to the top/sides - it should be in any day now. In the mean time I am going to start setting up the computer and configuring the software. I think I've turned the corner and I'm past the 1/2 way point now!

More later.