The thing I had alluded to in the last post was making a polycarbonate (Lexan) overlay for the control panel. This was worthwhile, if not necessary, for a number of reasons: First off, people are going to be touching the nice pretty white control panel with their grimy hands all the time, so you want to be able to clean it. If you only had paint, between the grimy hands and the cleaning because of the grimy hands, it would eventually wear through the paint. The other reason is similar: using an overlay allows you to put fewer coats of paint on, and I believe I have mentioned before as to how much I despise painting.
Now for the process of making the panel:
I started out by tracing out the shape of the panel, and cut it with plenty of room to spare. I then marked out where I was going to put holes for screws on both the panel and the overlay. When marking the screws, I put painters tape over approximately where I knew I would be drilling holes, then marked 1/2" in from each edge with my special 0.3mm mechanical pencil (everyone who knows me is disturbed by my love for them). The reason for the painters tape in case you were wondering is that it helps to keep marks off of the board, and also helps to avoid marring the surface from a misbehaving drill bit. After drilling the holes and countersinking, I peeled off the bottom plastic sheet, and fastened it to the board. After that, I used a flush trim bit and routed out each hole with my router table, using the hole in the panel as a guide. At this point, I was basically done; all I had to do was peel off the top sheet and I was good to go!
If I could, I would definitely mark the screws differently; once mounted, the panel bowed up between two screws, due to a mismeasurement. I would also like to do something different when fastening and routing the overlay. I got shavings of Lexan underneath the overlay and was afraid to do anything with them, because I didn't want to scratch anything with them. Next time, I would probably leave the bottom sheet on, fasten it, rout it, take it off, clear all the shavings, peel off the bottom sheet, then very carefully refasten it using the same holes. I would also not use it in a router table configuration; the router was full of pieces of Lexan, which was hard to get out. I would use a different bit, and use it in handheld configuration to let gravity take care of the stuff for the most part at least.
Now for the process of making the panel:
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| Cut and ready to mark. |
What I Would Do Differently
If I could, I would definitely mark the screws differently; once mounted, the panel bowed up between two screws, due to a mismeasurement. I would also like to do something different when fastening and routing the overlay. I got shavings of Lexan underneath the overlay and was afraid to do anything with them, because I didn't want to scratch anything with them. Next time, I would probably leave the bottom sheet on, fasten it, rout it, take it off, clear all the shavings, peel off the bottom sheet, then very carefully refasten it using the same holes. I would also not use it in a router table configuration; the router was full of pieces of Lexan, which was hard to get out. I would use a different bit, and use it in handheld configuration to let gravity take care of the stuff for the most part at least.
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