MOTM

--- In motm@y..., Stooge Barlow wrote:
> And how did you do them -- most specifically the hole drilling 
> pattern? And what are you planning to make them (the cases) out 
> of -- veneer plywood?

The rails are pine, with brass insert nuts. The nuts have wood 
threads outside and #8-32 machine threads inside. I had to use a soft 
wood because the brass would deform trying to seat it into oak rails. 
I bought hundreds of them (literally 576 to cover 144U of panel 
space) from Lowe's and got a special price. I decided to populate 
each and every possible hole location so that I wouldn't be 
constrained later on when I wanted to move modules around. They are 
spaced in standard rack spacing - start 0.25" from one end, then the 
pattern is 1.25", 0.50", 1.25", 0.50", 1.25"...

For the cases themselves, I haven't decided, although the technique I 
used to build the other one worked really well, was inexpensive, and 
turned out beautifully. That was simply to use good birch 3/4" 
plywood, and cover all exposed ply edges with iron on birch veneer 
(all this stuff is available at Lowe's also.) It matches perfectly 
and looks dead-on like solid wood. After finish sanding, I used 1 
coat of MinWax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner as a sealer, 2 coats of 
MinWax Red Oak Stain, and 3 coats of MinWax Wipe-On Poly. I will 
stick to these products the next time, because it's the very first 
time in my life that I obtained a professional looking finish. 

Moe

Dave's Hot Rod MOTM Shop
http://www.users.qwest.net/~daveb2