The Control Panel

I am finally in a position to start recreating the control panel! The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend and more importantly, I got my hands on an original control panel to copy - huge thanks to Bender over at BYOAC!!! He sent me his control panel all the way from Maine!

Here is what the top looks like:

As you can see, the top is actually laminated because the control panel overlay does not completely cover the plywood. You can see the outline of where the control panel overlay used to be. The two holes on the right and left sides in the middle hold the control panel strikes in place underneath (they allow the control panel to be locked into place). Someone also drilled an extra hole in this thing for god knows what.

Here are a couple of shots from underneath:

Nothing crazy here - the area by the joystick was routed out so the joystick mounting plate could sit flush with the top. I'll be recreating that as well.

I am actually quite surprised how well it has held up considering it is 25+ years old. The edges on all 4 sides are still very crisp and it should be easy to copy it with a pattern bit and my router. I'll also use it to place the 8 holes for the screws which hold down the overlay. Once that is in place I'll be able to exactly drill out the 3 button holes and the hole for the joystick.

I need to find a piece of black laminate or something to cover the plywood with too. Hopefully Home Depot has something I can use.

More later.