Yesterday, I made a couple of visits to Home Depot and I've pretty much got all I need from there in terms of building Pandora's Box 2. I got some nice unfinished pine for the main frame and some concealed 90-degree hinges for the four sides (the link below links to 170 degree hinges as the 90 degree hinges are not on Home Depot's website - but they look very similar). Today the big Fry's ad came out, so I'm hoping for a 4 computer KVM to be advertised - otherwise I'll have to spend $40 for one at Microcenter (Fry's usually has one for $20-$30 weekly).

Since I was excited about these cool hinges, I experimented with them on some 2x4's and they work perfectly. While experimenting, I also tried to figure out how to get my motherboards mounted to the pine. How else, but standoffs of course? I have plenty of motherboard standoffs from taking apart cases and such, but I wasn't sure if they'd work in wood. However, after drilling a pilot hole with a standard wood screw, I put the standoff in the drill itself and screwed it on into the wood. Surprisingly, it is extremely sturdy. The standoff will not give in any direction and will be perfect to hold the motherboard. Figuring out how to keep the wiring out of the way, but accessible is another challenge.

I also have to wait for the power supply splitters to come from Ateck.com. The store had good reviews on the net, so I figured they'd be reputable, but I haven't heard anything from them yet regarding shipment. The other store I was going to get them from has a backorder of a few weeks, so that doesn't work, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the time being.

Either way, I have a lot of time left in initial construction, but it would be very nice to have all the pieces in hand before putting the parts into the box so I can figure out where exactly parts need to go so cables have the correct reach.

URL: The Home Depot: Amerock BP4631-A14 170-Degree Concealed Hinge (1 Pr.)