Edge Trim

I spent several hours making the edge trim pieces. It is very important that these pieces are as exact as possible, as they effect the entire rest of the case. I was very meticulous to get them as straight and accurate as possible.

I first printed out a shot with dimensions from Sketchup.



When you use a router you need a flat surface on the piece being routed so that the piece stays square with the router bit. So, I first cut the curve for the edges before using the router to remove the middle material.



For the two top pieces, I also had to remove material on the bottom for the edge overhang. This took forever as the router bit would only cut about 1/32” at a time smoothly, and I had to remove 5/16” of material. I finished the removal with my table saw. I was using a 3/4” cutting bit, so I had to use the table saw to finish removing the width of the groove. I probably could have cut the entire slot with the table saw, but it is hard to get slots like this really accurate with a table saw sometimes, whereas with a router, you can get the depth exactly what you want.

I also cut the 45 degree angle on the ends. Here is an end view of a top edge piece.



Here's a few shots of kind of how the pieces fit together. The trim will not be sitting directly on the front metal of the case. I am making a spacer that will move the trim 1/4” away from the front, and the front wood piece 1/2” away from the metal front to allow for lighting.







You will notice that the pieces are longer than they need to be. One thing I've learned when routing pieces is that you always want to make your piece larger than you need. When routing, it is very easy to damage the ends a bit as you pull the piece across the router bit. Also, if you make a goof in cutting angles on the end, you can just recut them.

I have to drill holes in the metal to mount these pieces, and then I can cut the front and top pieces to width and cut these to length.

Thanks for stopping by.