Myself and Sam today completed the inner casing out of MDF. How we got this done today, I do not know. After belting the crap out of each other with some plastic pipe (I'm in my late twenties for crying out loud!) I was amazed at how we completed it on time. I'm very pleased at how its turned out. I have added some toggle switches that i bought from Maplin (1 toggle switch = £2.26...that doesn't seem very cheap to me), and I think this has really brought the panel to life. I had a slight panic attack last night because I thought I had bought the wrong circuit board. For some reason I had it in my head that a "Digital-32 input controller" could not take a toggle switch. Uhhh. .. After a sleepless night worrying about it...seriously, I'm sure there is plenty more things to worry about, a quick email from Peter at Simkits put my mind at rest. So basically I need some more switches, some PCB holders to put the controller in place and then some wiring and firing to light this baby up. Yeehah.

Some progress has been made building the case for the panel. With the help of my mate Sam, a very talented theatre technician, great fella, even better to have around when your drunk and can't find your own house, this is the second attempt at using MDF for the casing. Sam practically built this for me and it's great to have someone with more experience in carpentry working with me on this project. Our first attempt had slight design flaw and it may have worked if we hadn't cut the wood so thin. It unfortunately split apart and I had to go back to the drawing board. But this was the result and I think it works quite well and it's very sturdy. Three more pieces which we are cutting tomorrow and the circuit board can be put in place ready for everything to be wired up. This project is moving at quite a quick pace now and I can't wait to start using it.

I have finally managed to paint and engrave my panel and I am very happy with the result. The engraving shop said that they were not entirely sure that vinyl lettering would be suitable for the type of pain on the panel. They were worried that when peeling away the surplus vinyl the paint could come away from the panel. It was actually flaking away in my hands at one point. The paintshop had sprayed the aluminium the wrong colour. It was in very light grey. So it had to be repainted black and they ended up doing a quick job. Subsuquently it wasnt baked in an oven but it still looks very good. It was decided that laser engraving was a better option but the shop was not sure how deep it would cut. But to my surprise the engraving took away the first layer of paint leaving the previous grey underneath and it really looks superb.

I have bought some MDF to make the case for this panel to be attached to which I will start on Monday. But it is really starting to shape up.