When building my cabinet to try and save on time I created stencils of everything first by tracing or drawing it out on Bristol board. I then traced that stencil onto the MDF. The one good thing is that because there are 2 sides to the cabinet most parts I only had to create once, and once it was done each side was almost identical to the other. The other thing is that when you work with MDF make sure you have a mask. The wood is basically saw dust and glue. If it gets into your lungs it’s pretty nasty. There’s lots of chemicals in MDF so try not to breath it in. Also leason number 2 don’t do it near your car. I ended up getting so much dust into the filters I had to change them all out. Work with MDF in a well ventilated area, for me it was outside in the summer so no issues.
Getting ahead on the artwork can help with the control panel as well. In my case I built the artwork early on so that I could see how each joystick would be positioned and get an idea if it felt comfortable. The highlight was having 4 buddies over some beers and trying to get us all to stand around this paper to see if it felt to tight or not. Overall the angle and the way everything lined up seemed to work out well. You can also see the measurements I used for the panel in one of the images of the gallery.
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