Niall's Mattson Mini Modular "Laptop"

via George Mattson

"Custom 24 module bookmatched fiddleback maple case with a serious attempt at continuous perimeter grain.

The customer wanted it to open up like a laptop."

via George Mattson on Muff's:

"Basically, the case is two horizontal cases hinged like the standard cases. I made them out of fiddle back maple and did my best to match the grain around the perimeters and bookmatch the pattern on the opposite case.

Since he wanted to use it "laptop" fashion, I made power connectors accessible from the right rear sides rather than put them on the back panel.

The depth of each cabinet is 1/2" less than my standard cabinets. 3" rather than 3.5" deep. i tried to get them as narrow as I could without having the back of the modules run into the power distribution boards and leave enough front lip to where the panel components wouldn't breach the front edge case plane.

I stared at the boards for a long time before I actually started cutting..."

via Niall on Muff's: "My Mini has arrived! I'll spare you the unboxing photos, because I think George has better photos than I can provide [pics in this post]. I haven't had the opportunity to play with it, having been waylaid happily for the evening, but I can comment on a few salient points:

It's bigger than I thought it would be, which is to say not too small. The controls aren't that much more cramped than functionally dense small format modules. It's beautiful. I had asked George if he'd consider designing a cabinet to be used in a "laptop" fashion. He thought about it for awhile, asked questions, thought some more, asked some more questions, and after some back and forth, made this case. It's awesome, can I can't wait to stuff the other side. It's a wonderful confluence of function and aesthetics - in other words, good design.

George was very generous with his time and materials. He's made a lifer of me.

Now, I just gotta get the Evenfall in shouting distance of it, and make some noise."