Media Blast Cabinet
Page 2
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Next I started on the top. Originally I was going to cut 3 holes in the top and cover with Plexiglas to allow light in. I thought that it wouldn’t be enough and I would just bolt some spotlights to that pointing down into the cabinet. But I thought that might create allot of heat. So what I did decide to do was to get a 4-foot long florescent shop light and cut a 4-foot long opening in the top and cover that with Plexiglas. I left a 4-inch section in the middle to allow for more support. This left about 1 foot on each end of the top solid with no light coming through. So I just cut out an 8X12 inch section and put Plexiglas to cover that, I had lots of Plexiglas left over so it didn’t cost me nothing. I used caulking between the Plexiglas and the MDF particleboard to seal that up nicely. I also had a router at this point and I put a 25-degree angle along the front of this piece so the front board would mount flush to the top. Here is a picture of the top upside down, the back side is closest to the camera.
Click on picture for a larger image.
I installed the top onto the cabinet. The cabinet frame was slightly off and only required about a ¼ inch nudge to make it square. I used a generous bead of Liquid Nails around the bottom of it to seal it. Here are 3 pictures of it, I had the entire cabinet up on jack stands when I took these pictures.
Click on picture for a larger image.
Now at this point I wanted to put some structure along the front of the cabinet. I decided to go with 2X4s so as to make it much stronger. Also after I cut a 25 degree angle into the length of a 2X2 there really wasn’t much left of it as I stated before. I also decided to make the front bottom a 2X4 also for the heck of it. I needed a 2X2 under the middle 2X4 so the front panel has something to screw to. I screwed this to the cabinet at both ends and I put in 5 screws attaching it to the middle 2X4. This should make for a strong angle here. On all of the 2X4s I used 3 inch #10 screws on both sides of the cabinet to hold them all together. This isn’t coming apart! Here are 2 more pictures.
Click on picture for a larger image.
You can get a feel for the size of this thing now that its up on the jack stands. I will position the glove rings (what the gloves attach to) while its up here before I cut the holes out for them. This way I will be able to make sure that I will not have to stand stooping over or anything.
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