Further Construction And Painting

Following on from the cutting we started with the assembly of the cabinet. To attach the pieces we used plastic brackets and a couple of plastic angled brackets; I contemplated using wood glue also but I'm reluctant to do so as I may wish to take the cabinet apart at some point in the future and I'm confident it'll be strong enough once the assembly is complete. First we measured out all the holes to drill and then we attached the brackets:

Once these parts were put into the cabinet we added two strips of plastic to act as supports for the ends of the control panel:

Really pleased with the way the cabinet is looking now, because I was pretty organised going into this, so far the build doesn't seem to be too difficult at all. The next step is to begin the painting which, I've decided, will require two coats of white primer to begin. When working with MDF the most important thing when it comes to painting is making sure that the surface is sealed correctly. Many primers are water based and these should be AVOIDED at all cost when it comes to priming the surface, as water based will raise the fibres in the wood. The primer I've chosen is 'satin based' and is called 'grey steel' which is slightly off-white and perfect for the colour I'll be applying over it.

The rollers are just cheap ones I picked up from The Range which are ideal for use on smooth surfaces.

 

Before I started the painting I quickly sanded over the surface with sandpaper (I used the 'extra fine' for all of the coats apart from the final coat, for which I will use the 'super fine'), this should ALWAYS be done before ANY coat of paint is applied; I then wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove any dust.

Water-based painted tends to dry much faster than the satin based paint I'm using, and as such it's been taking roughly 24 hours for a coat to completely dry even in the warmth of the house rather than the cold garage where the work is taking place.

A couple of days later and the undercoats are finished and the surface is looking really nice. So again I use the sandpaper (extra fine) and apply my first coat of coloured paint using another roller. The colour scheme and artwork is based on the original 1981 Nintendo of America cabinet for Donkey Kong so I choose 'Warm Blue' from the 'Colours' range from B&Q. A cabinet this size won't require too much paint but at least 3 coats will be required, so instead of buying a large tin for £18 I bought small 'match pot' tubs for £1.10 each, of which I may only need to use 3 or 4.

For the back door and the insides of the cabinet I am using black; I've yet to decide on whether to paint the entire interior black or just the part that will be visible next to the bezel and control panel on the inside of the side-panels.

So now the first blue and black coats are on and drying... looking good so far...