Hey all,
A number of guys have PM'd and / or emailed me asking how I made the little backbox replica's.
I thought I would put this thread up with the details in case anyone wants to copy the idea themselves.
Mine were all cut and routered manually one at a time - its time consuming and messy but if you want to do it - this is what I did.
BackboxesFirstly - a list of the materials
12mm MDF
3mm MDF
Black Satin spray can
Black GLOSS spray can............( Squirts brand sprays best I have found )
Sheets of 2mm perspex.
Printed artwork on gloss paper.
Liquid Nails.
Eyelet Hooks
Garden Hose - yes Garden Hose !The sides are 80mm across the top, 60mm across the bottom and 215 high.
The top is 205 x 80
The bottom is 205 x 60
I made em so the top and bottom would fit 'inside' the side pieces so you dont see joins from the side.
I routered a 5mm wide x 5mm deep channel in each piece.
I measured 40mm in from the BACK of each piece and routered the channel at that spot - make sense?
I did NOT router the channel ALL the way through on the bottom of the side pieces so you wouldnt see a gap or filler on the finished job when looking from below, I finished it just short of breaking through. I DID router all the way through at the TOP of the side pieces so that I could glue the bottom and 2 sides together and then slide the art and perspex sheet in before gluing the top in place.
Once you have your bottom and sides glued you can cut a test piece of 3mm mdf to use as a test piece to get the perspex/ print the correct size. I did this and then took the size to a local Perspex/ Plastics place - they cut me 9 sheets for $40.00
You can then use Photoshop or similar to create BG art to the same size as your perspex measurment.
I also painted my ( now glued ) bottom and sides at this point. When I spray MDF I do a Satin base coat rough, then when its dry I sand it back with 120 paper , then a 240 to get it all smooth and THEN spray a final and NICE gloss coat. If I dont sand it back then I find the gloss finish very rough and it looks crap.
I painted the top piece ( still seperate at this point ) now as well.
Before I paint the top piece I put 2 eyelet hooks about 10 mm in at the back ( see pic below ) - that way I kew I could just hang these on nails and they would slide back and sit against the gyprock wall neatly.
Obviously after you are happy with the paint job simply drop the art and perspex in the channel and then glue the top in place - done
Heres the back - and here comes the garden hose.
See it in the corners?
The channel , being 5mm leaves the perspex/art 'sloppy'.
So I cut some garden hose rings and then sliced em in half - I then slipped them in so they wanted to flex out and hold it all tight in place ( an old trick for stabilising Williams 70's backglasses that rattled as you played the games like Gorgar etc ).
I am sure this is plenty enough info to get you started - LMK if you need any more help or dont understand anything I have written
