So I spent tonight working on the trim for the front panel. I wanted a total thickness of 1 inch for the front panel but I only want 1/2 an inch of overlap on the acrylic. Unfortunately Home Depot doesn't stock 1x1/2 angle aluminum so I had to go with 1x1 and trim half an inch off one side. MK, you'll be proud to know I used snips to accomplish this. Cutting 1/16" thick aluminum along a 4 foot line 'bout killed my forearm! But, with patience, concentration, and focus I was able to cut an impressively straight line with very little distortion of the trim piece. I dare say the cut was tremendously straighter than it would have been had I used my normal method with a dremel.
After that it was a lot of time spent taking measurements and making marks on the trim piece where I would need to make the cuts. I used a quality adjustable straightedge (that also had a 45 degree surface) to ensure my marks were at precisely 45 degrees. I drilled a 1/8" hole at the apex of the marks and then again used the snips to cut out the notches.
After a little bit of filing to clean up the notches I used a hand held seamer to help control the trim as I made the bends. This took a bit of finesse since I didn't want definite creases at the corners. The Soprano top panel has slightly rounded edges so I want the front panel to follow that design.
I folded the trim over until my notch cuts touched each other. For every corner this occurred slightly shy of a true 90 degree bend. Why I'm not quite sure but I suspect is had something to do with the thickness of the material and the fact that I bent the corners slightly rounded. I just happen to have a set of hobby files with a very thin straight file in it. I used the thin file to open the corner up a little more. Each session open the gap between the notch cuts by about 3/64". This allowed me to tighten the bend a bit more each time until I achieved a perfect 90 degree corner.
Two top bends complete.
And after another round of measuring, marking, cutting notches, bending, filing, bending, filing, bending, filing, etc......... here is the piece with all four corners bent. I haven't quite figured out what to do with the gap at the bottom. I knew from the beginning that this gap would exist since the aluminum was only 4 feet long to start with. The case is 17" tall by 7 7/8" wide so a four foot trim piece comes up a couple of inches short. The obvious solution is to simply cut a 2 inch piece to fill the gap, but I'm kicking around a few ideas to maybe incorporate some sort of a name plate for that area... perhaps a case badge mounting surface or something like that.
Overall I was able to achieve exactly 17" height, but I overshot the width by about 1/16". I haven't quite decided if this is acceptable to me yet. It's a lot of work to do over for a mere 1/16"... and what's to say I won't miss the mark again.
I haven't quite decided if I want to have the corners welded or just do it myself with JB weld. Either way, the gap at the corners and the joints on whatever I decide to do with the bottom gap will eventually be filled in, filed, and sanded smooth. The plan for now is to have the trim piece texture powder coated to match the rest of the case. Paint would be simple, but considering it is the front panel it will be very exposed to getting bumped. Since it is made of aluminum I just see a lot of chips showing up.
Here are some more shots of the trim piece with the acrylic in place. I had to do a bit of sanding on the edges of the acrylic. I originally designed the acrylic without yet intending to use a trim piece around it so the thickness of the trim piece had to be sanded off the edge.
Here are a couple of shots to show how perfectly the acrylic fits into the trim piece.
And finally, here is the image I have been working on for the past two weeks! I'm just so pleased at how this is turning out. When I started this project I never would have imagined I would end up fabricating a custom front panel like this.
, maybe some sort of light projector at the bottom shining an image or words on the floor just below your case. It will fill the gap, look great and im shore that if you do everything else youve done it wouldnt be to hard for you to make such a device
