Woodworking

Adebisi said:

This is prob the move.

Are there recommended aftermarket roof rack system brands?

Click to expand...

thule rack he has probably cost $700.

one of the go to light weight trailers, just got replaced by a new higher priced one

also, for light stuff, used boat trailers are cheap.

So I've wanted to get into woodworking and finally decided on a project but I'm a complete newb. I want to make an arcade control panel out of this plywood : Black Melamine Plywood | Cherokee Wood Products. It's a 3/4" baltic birch plywood with a thin outer layer of mdf and black melamine face on either side. So basically it's just going to be a rectangular box with a a lid that has a slight 2-3" overhang from the front. I plan to put 2 player controls on this and the box itself will be fairly big, about 24" D X 55" W X 6" H. Since its probably going to take some abuse I'd like it to be as sturdy as possible.

Ideally what I wanted is to make it glued and maybe reinforced from the inside with brackets so it appears like a smooth black box from the outside, but I'm not experienced enough in joinery to know how to put it together without it falling apart a year later. I wanted to avoid pocket holes and the like if possible.

How would one put this together? I was thinking maybe 45 degree miter cuts or dados for the sides of the box and glue them that way, but I'm not sure how I would attach the sides to the bottom. I know there's melamine glue but that seems like a terrible way to do it. I just have a router, jigsaw, and a table saw to work with atm but I'd be open to getting other tools if it makes life easier. Anyone have any ideas?

Sythrak said:

I'm not experienced enough in joinery to know how to put it together without it falling apart a year later. I wanted to avoid pocket holes and the like if possible.

Click to expand...

Snobbery aside, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with pocket holes so long as you know their limitations. Cabinets are one place where they're generally acceptable, especially if you also glue. As an added bonus they serve as built-in clamps, which you may or may not have in the right size/quantity.

Sythrak said:

How would one put this together?

Click to expand...

Just googling for images of arcade control panels, you have a bunch of fairly simple options. I don't know if I'd go for mitered corners as a first project. This sort of thing looks just fine if you can get some edge banding to match (or contrast with) the panels. Careful dados would do the trick.



It also looks like many of them don't bother with a bottom panel. If you definitely want one, you could rout out a rabbet around the perimeter of either the bottom or the sides and then join with screws so you could remove it later if you needed to access the internals in the future.

Captain Suave said:

It also looks like many of them don't bother with a bottom panel. If you definitely want one, you could rout out a rabbet around the perimeter of either the bottom or the sides and then join with screws so you could remove it later if you needed to access the internals in the future.

Click to expand...

The box will have hinges in the back so that you can just lift up the lid to get inside if you need to do maintenance, otherwise its a pretty big pain to lift this thing up to take out the bottom. But yea I was thinking about routing the bottom panel like that too, it just looks weird from a stability perspective. The sides will still have melamine on it so would it not glue very well to the bottom like that?

Its also gotta sit flat so it can't be like the first picture. Its going to be on a pedestal stand and it standing like that wouldnt fit very well on it. I think for those they just route out slits on the bottom of the sides and join them to the bottom panel.

Sythrak said:

it just looks weird from a stability perspective.

Click to expand...

I suspect you're over-thinking the stability concerns. I've seen gyms with box jump boxes made with pocket holes, and dadoes/rabbets are stronger than that. For a countertop application just about anything will be fine. It's not like this is a chair where you have bodyweight forces and several multiples of leverage.

Sythrak said:

The sides will still have melamine on it so would it not glue very well to the bottom like that?

Click to expand...

You'll need to remove the melamine from anything you want to glue. Make sure to take into account how that changes the thickness when you make your dadoes.

Yeah I think I'm def overthinking it ha. I have an older arcade cabinet made out of mdf and its held together with cam locks pretty well for years.

So you guys think pocket holes reinforcing the box from the inside would be better than using brackets? Or would either even be needed in this case? The mdf cabinet control panel uses brackets like these attaching the side panels to the bottom panel, 2 per side:

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Brackets-90Degree-Furniture-Bookshelf/dp/B092JSV3KT?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8iQjswWaQ72YCU2ZEsNZpy0Tvquqaddyz-AxYUu6ehU2tW-4XMfmVRb8ZLbUukMAkCU4PFWJQNOm4_mYB6TOgzL2qnj2Xe6kkRwrGfDEfXjahTgXlJ7I-QxcRIx6VP0QW80xM6TWVaQLkEgN1qKg7oEeEMVWrzQQhr7tblyuR-1vTL0HjVtI9Rvr0Z4gMZgnMo1RWatDsPdcLCwL8N6wZCD_cFvv-tsGCiF4TT0VLapI5i9Bqzg0EPm8gXpOswwFwuPl-4d7YVWw5CPSHNmTfqLdxasxMKcWdlqhF9vgKWw.0IuoQAVbGa9x2pkMDV2c4ycO192w2GierXfye9zPOKo&dib_tag=se&keywords=right+angle+brackets&qid=1747855438&sr=8-4&th=1

Sythrak said:

So you guys think pocket holes reinforcing the box from the inside would be better than using brackets?

Click to expand...

Just do whatever you're most comfortable executing, unless you're in it as a skill-building project. Other than secret warm fuzzies about having done it "the right way", I highly doubt you'll ever notice a difference between any of the solutions. Realistically, you could just butt the panels together, join with screws and brackets, and if you're totally OCD you could put a tiny bead of caulk on any open seams.