Started to Make the Case

Since I did all the soldering this past weekend on the portable TV, I now have both the hacked Atari and TV... so it's time to make the case to put them in!

I went to a hardware store here in Naples called Leroy Merlin last night, and bought some clear hard plastic (2mm thick I think), a piece of 2mm thick aluminum, and some screws. I also got some epoxy and another set of exacto knives. I started tracing out the front panel last night, but I got pretty concerned that the plastic was going to be too brittle to work.

Tonight I worked on it some more, and got out a big utility knife to trace over the grooves I originally made with the sharp exacto knife. I then cut grooves in almost the exact same place on the other side of the plastic (easy to do when it's transparent!), and lo and behold, I was able to snap out the front panel!

Now for the even harder part, which is to somehow cut out the tiny holes inside the panel which will accommodate the fire buttons, start button, etc. That should be interesting... I think that I will try to score the outside of the holes as much as possible on both sides of the plastic, then use a drill to get in the middle of each cutout, and somehow pop out pieces of plastic until I get to the scored edge of each cutout. It will be a challenge, for sure! I already have some minor scratches on the plastic since it scratches easily, but that will just add character to the thing. It's going to be ugly anyway since the guts will be exposed, but that's part of the "coolness" of it in my opinion -- it will truly look like a "hacked" project with visible wires, electrical tape, circuit boards, etc. Even the battery cover will be transparent! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product already...