Quick Cavity Covers
by Brian Calvert
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Q: OK so what does a body you scored off of Ebay or from a friend and a Rubbermaid brand office trash can you picked up for $4.99 at your local Wal-mart or Lowe's hardware have in common? A: The trash can is your solution to those missing cavity covers that booger never sent you! |
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First take a piece of paper and masking tape and make your design by holding the paper in place and scribbling all along the edges of the cavity that needs the cover. |
| Once your finished getting the outline lift the page up and down (leaving it taped to the body) and find out where each of the mounting screw holes are and punch a hole through your paper with the pencil at each location. |
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If by chance your punch mark is off don't sweat it just draw a line across the correct area and move on! |
| OK now remove your paper from the body and flip it over. Cover the area you want a cover copied from with some easy to remove school glue. If you don't have any available don't worry you can simply slice a small square out in the middle of the cover you want to build and tape it down (pencil side up on both cases) to the side of the ???????? |
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Remember the trash can???? Cut out one of the flat side's using a nice new shiny and very sharp exacto blade or other razor knife. Be very careful as this stuff cuts really easy! Now mount your paper template down on the piece of plastic you just removed from the donor can... |
| You will fine it really easy to score through the plastic. It takes about 4 good medium pressure pull's to get all the way through with a clean line using a metal straight edge to guide you down each side. |
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You can chop the remaining corners following the lines you have on your paper mask by simply pressing down through the plastic a little at a time. Just nip a little off and move as you go around the corner, it's easy! Tip: If it comes out to rough you can always glide it along a piece of 150 or 220 grit sand paper, that will smooth it out for you. |
| Remember those holes you punched through with a pencil? Time to drill through them using a 1/8" bit and take your time lining it up! |
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Now to make it even fancier pull your paper template off and drill just the very top edge of each hole with a 1/4" bit. This will give you a recessed screw head hole so it looks factory. |
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And there you have it a perfectly fit cavity cover which comes in a variety of colors if your into buying those cream or green or other color trash can's! You will also have the choice of smooth or satin since the inside of the cans are usually smooth and the outside is satin! But wait there's more =o) |
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If you need to have shielded cavity covers be sure to pick up a roll of aluminum tape from the air conditioning section of your local hardware store! |
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And don't forget the mounting screw's! You will want either Oval head or flat head #4 x 1/2" I always stick with the Phillips heads myself!
Later bro.!............. =o) |
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