Good morning,
Hard to imagine it has been nearly 10 years since I traced this cabinet. From memory, the cabinet was borrowed from DJDNS and was in ok shape. The cabinet was going to be re-used / restored back to something else. As a result, it had to stay intact and could not be taken apart, which always causes a greater chance for a measuring error. This was also before I started 3d scanning for measurements.
I went through my emails and I had 2 different people ask questions about the cabinet as part of a build, but I never got any feedback on how the builds went..... That is good news if they actually got built (everyone is always happy to point out problems with the build plans).
From memory, the areas of concern for the cabinet are around the monitor mounting and angle. The dynamo cabinets had a removable monitor frame that would allow for horizontal and vertical monitor mounts. This is probably where any problems would arise. I would dryfit all of these parts before using any glue.
From looking at the reference photos, it looks like the base and monitor frame were made of plywood. This is typical. Blocking was hard wood and looked to be glued and screwed.
To answer your questions, side panels were originally 3/4" particle board, as was most of the cabinet. Choice of side panel material does not matter much (due to thickness) outside of t-molding thickness. Personally, I don't use particle board for cabinets. I would use 3/4" plywood (usually around .70") and horizontal grade laminate....to come in at overall thickness of .75"
Wood seems to be particle board for the majority of the cabinet, with plywood for the base and monitor frame, and hardwood blocking.
Support block dimensions would have to be pulled from the drawings. Please note that the long run blocks did not seem to be measured. I simply drew one long support block as opposed to the 2-3 small blocks that would normally be used. The depth was the focus. When I used to build cabinets on a regular basis, I would cut "pockets" at .1" deep for blocking. Also please be aware that the wood block would have to be .03-.05 smaller to fit into the pockets. If your blocking is too small, just slide it up to the edge.
I made a YouTube series (7 parts) for scratch building cabinets and working with the plans. Not going to win an Emmy and I can't stand watching it myself, but the content is useful. I did it to answer the majority of the common questions I got asked. It is about 2 hours of content. First video is here .....
ZooKeeper scratch build part 1
While not the same cabinet, much would still apply. I think that about covers it.
Brian
