Cabinet and Work Surface

I forgot to post a couple pics earlier. This is the junction box for the limit switches. First the inside, the soldering isn't finished in this shot. The grounds still need to be joined and then the perf board pressed in and glued:

Here's the outside. Sorry about the focus. The light isn't great for photography and I'm a bit lazy with it.

After wiring up the controller I went crazy and rerouted the speed controller for the spindle motor. I also disconnected the thermal cutoff switch from the motor control and connected it to my microcontroller. Rather than shut the motor down it triggers an audible alarm.

Here's a before shot of the mill. The speed control is the box to the right of the spindle and below the motor. If you can figure out where those things are.

And here it is with the speed controller missing. This angle shows a significant improvement in visibility of the work area. Plus, the controls will be with all the others. I used a film canister as the junction box.

Earlier I posted someone else's cabinet for a mill-in-a-box. I thought I'd do something similar. The box would serve to hold tools, keep dust off the machine, and protect it from swinging 2x4's. But then I started making measurements and realized the part of the cabinet above the work surface was going to be huge, a 24" cube. That's going to be heavy. I got a bit concerned about my ability to build something sturdy enough to handle the weight. Then I called a contractor buddy of mine to see if he had a source for scrap counter top. It just so happened he was doing a kitchen job later in the week and pulling out a Corian solid-surface counter top. I pulled this piece out of his dump trailer:

It's a neutral grey, kind of speckled like granite but nothing warm and flowery. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just not what I want in my shop. This piece is 30" wide and 25" deep. It even has a backsplash. I was going to build a worksurface 24" x 24" so this is a little bigger. But with the mill sitting on it, it doesn't look that too big (the work surface). The white card stock in the foreground are stand-ins for my controls. I've even got room for the DRO.

So I think I'm going to bail on "enclosing" it. I can always add that later. This material may be a bit hard to work. I've got to drill a number of large holes and cut out rectangles for the DRO and throttle. I'll take my time, hopefully won't screw it up.