I was lucky enough to get this beautiful wood from a fellow member of WoodNet.net. All the boards were 1/4″ thick and about 3″ wide. Two of the 6 boards were a near perfect grain match. I decided to use this match to make the top of the case. Because of the narrowness of the boards this also determined the depth of the case.

I wanted this case to be one of my full custom hardwood case. Each control in the case gets some form of the main wood from the case. To that end I took one of the small cuttoffs from the case sides and passed it through my bandsaw for veneers. I had just loaded my bandsaw with a new blade as wide as it could handle and tuned it up for the blade. Surprisingly I was able to get 3 veneers out of the 1/4″ thick piece. After some sanding and a few coats of polyurathane they were ready to be cut and inserted into the buttons.

Thanks to another member of WoodNet.net I was able to procure a small turning block to match the rest of the case. This I had planed on using to make a normal sized ball top. However due to one dimension being just a tad small and a slight misalignment of the center I ended up with a small balltop. This top is 30mm instead of the standard 35mm. With the size and scale of the case I think that this was a happy mistake. As you can see I also make a Bubinga dust cover to match. Because the top panel was only 1/4″ thick I decided to show the mounting screws and choose solid brass.

The corner blocks needed to be just as nice as the main wood. I also wanted it to contrast to give the case some character. I went to my small but growing stash of special lumber. What caught my attention was some Curly Spalted Maple. After carefully choosing the section of the Maple board I cut out the corner blocks. With even more care I laid out and cut the case corners and glued these 3/4″ square blanks into the resulting spaces.

One final detail is the bottom panel. The Bubinga was so beautiful from both sides I wanted to show it off. I had sanded and polished both sides of the panel prior to assembly. Then drilled the holes for the controls. After the finish coat of polyurathane was applied and dried I installed a clear plexiglas bottom panel.

-- Computer programmer by day, fine woodworker by night. Custom made joysticks for Console Systems and Personal Computers.