This stuff is riveting!

Big Bottom, I got 'em

Behold; the first panel that is finished!

When I got home from work on Friday night, the bottom piece was ready to have the weights removed from it.   Eager to get started, I attached a side rail along the top edge of the board, and began drilling out the rivet holes.

Prior to riveting, I put the rails and corners on so I could see how it would look when finished

Here's what it looks like with the casterboards on

After that was done, I decided to try out a test rivet on a scrap piece of rail first, just so I could get a feel for the process and what to expect.

Sacrificial test rivet

Once satisfied that I wouldn't mess things up too badly, I picked up the rivet gun and set to work.  The first rail I did ended up being a bit of a learning experience - when I drilled into the metal rails, I didn't realize that I needed to drill at a slight angle instead of straight through.  Hence, the first set of rivets weren't completely even and some didn't end up having enough clearance to have washers on them.

In case it's hard to tell, the top row of rivets were the first I had done

Before I had started on the rivet project however, I sliced out a piece of laminate for the top panel of the case, got it all slathered up with adhesive, and stuck it under some weight for twenty-four hours.

Gluuuuuue

The panel with guide rails laid over top

You may notice that I laid two strips of wood across the top panel.  This is a clever suggestion by the Reliable Hardware people - when you are ready to lay the laminate over the plywood, especially for larger pieces, they recommend that you lay out strips of wood so that you can lay the laminate on top of those boards while you position the ABS laminate over the piece it's going to be adhered to.  Because the glue only bonds with itself (after tacking onto the surface of whatever you are gluing), the laminate won't stick to the strips, so you can position the laminate and line it up before you press the two pieces together.  Once they are together, it's supremely difficult to separate them if you make a mistake.

I didn't actually have a lot of time to work on the case that night, so once I finished the first rail, I went to go eat dinner and relax for the evening.

One rail out of four done

The next morning I finished off the other three rails, drilling them out and getting them riveted on.

Spent rivet mandrils

Only umpteen bazillion more to go!

From there I moved onto cutting out the side panels for the lid, and then carving up some laminate to go on top of them.

Making the cut

In between getting the lid panels ready to be laminated, I also began drilling out the mounting holes onto the casterboards that the bolts that attach them to the case bottom will pass through.  I'm going to end up going with six bolts per casterboard to secure them.

Ready for glue

While I was waiting for the adhesive to tack up, I began putting all my tools and stuff away.  Since the bottom panel was already riveted, and the top panel was still curing under weight, I didn't have much else to work on at the moment.  The only aluminum rails I have left to cut are the tongue and groove for the front of the case, but I will need to hold off on those until I have measured out where the latches will be installed, as the rails along the front edge of the lid won't span the entire length of the lid since they will have spots cut out for the latches.

Side panels with laminate

As you can see, the laminate doesn't completely cover the lid side panels from corner to corner; this is intentional.  The laminate expands slightly as it bonds to the wood, and the wood that is visible currently will be covered up by the aluminum rails once they are installed, anyways.

Give 'em the clamp!

Since these side panels were small enough (and the lid panel still had time left under the sandbag weight), I used my ratchet bar clamps to apply pressure to them while they cure.

All the lid side panels curing

With all the side panels getting their laminate on, I finished cleaning up, closed up "shop," and headed to the cinema to watch some dinosaurs totally wreck shit up in 3D.

Hold onto your butts!