Woodware

The case/enclosure is probably the only way to distinguish a professional product from a DIY project. In the Peppy player I've tried to eliminate this difference as much as possible. Some time ago I took woodworking classes and decided to leverage that knowledge/experience in making wooden case for Peppy player.

Before the work on the case/enclosure starts the electronic hardware part should be finished. Working on both parts at the same is more difficult and troublesome. The most important part is your hardware dimensions. Until you figured out the exact dimensions of your hardware part you cannot start working on enclosure.

As any traditional woodworking process the case making process for the Peppy player consisted of the following steps:

1. Design
2. Sawing
3. Gluing
4. Sanding
5. Finishing

Woodworking Tools

The following image shows the main woodworking tools which I've used while working on the wooden case for the Peppy player.

1. Scroll Saw. This is the main tool which was used to shape the player body from the 1/4" boards which where glued together afterwards. Its 21" throat size allowed to handle case dimensions which I needed.

2. Drill. This tools is necessary to drill holes for joint pins in the wooden case. It's better to use a drill press for this task as it provides more stability but this kind of drill works fine as well.

3. Oscillating Spindle Sander. No matter how skillful you are in scroll-sawing it's very difficult to make very precise cuts. There are always drawbacks after sawing and gluing. The sander helps to eliminate those drawbacks. Just remember that this is very noisy and dusty tool. It's better to connect some dust collecting system to the sander (I used vacuum cleaner). Otherwise the dust will be scattered all over your workplace.

4. C-Clamps. I have put just six 6" C-clamps on the image in reality I have used bigger clamps as well. They are required to tighten your pieces at the gluing stage.