Surround and around...

The desktop test-track has been in the workshop this week being fitted with timber surrounds to give it a neat look and hide that it is a bodge of corkboard bits and timber. The end result is a medley of 44x4mm pine strip on the front and right edges, 3.5mm ply at the rear and left back, and similar thickness MDF in the left hand front corner.

Why the piecemeal approach? The original intention had been to use thicker 5.5mm ply as per my dioramas on the rear and left ends with the pine strip along the front (there is a limit to how narrow a strip of ply I can cut!). As the 5.5mm ply is too thick to allow a phono socket to screw in place I used the MDF for the piece where the sockets will be located.

After this piece was fixed in place the decision was taken to use thinner ply on the rear surround so the MDF remains in place despite offering no real advantage (although the drilled holes are probably a lot neater). The thicker ply parts had actually been cut and test fitted in place before the change was decided, hence the title of this post!

Colin