More parts arrived today...

So I got a large delivery today, with all the potentiometers, rotary switches, finish washers, and knobs arriving.  The only outstanding orders I have are for the red, green, and yellow arcade buttons and the blue and green 5mm LEDs I ordered last week.  Both are supposed to be in transit now.

I also picked up a 2'x4' sheet of 1/4" masonite to start the layout process.  I plan to draw up the individual panels and just lay them out on the board at first just to see if I like the looks.  I got started on that tonight, but have a ways to go.  The first step was simply determining the size of each subpanel.  I started with the booster panel, which is one of the more crowded panels.  After trying a few different sizes, I believe that 6"x6" is a pretty good balance for size.  I'll see if the other panels look good with that size as I sketch them out.

I also placed an order for wire.  That's one of those little details that can easily be overlooked for price.  And it can add up.  Microcenter sells 22 AWG stranded hookup wire for about $10 for 100 ft.  That isn't a horrid price compared to what you see on Ebay.  But it isn't cheap, and we'll be using a lot of wire.

Fortunately, I found Allied Wire and Cable.  They have a "bargain bin" section with what looks like the equivalent of carpet remnants - odd lengths of different colors.  Shipping isn't cheap through them, but even with it, costs end up being less than half of Microcenter - if you need to bulk order a lot of wire, it could be worth a look.

What I'm looking for now is a decent option for housing the status panels (the dual LED matrices).  Jeff used aluminum and plexiglass here.  I haven't found decent prices for any acrylics to use for these yet - but I may be able to simply use masonite with reflecting tape.  I'm going to keep looking and see what I can come up with.