Ooo... You have inspired me, sir!
This morning I was grumbling about my inability to afford a dirt cheap local HW16.5. My finances have been getting hammered over the past couple of months. And while I already own a KAB EV-1 and have already done a custom Ultrasonic build with the same Sonix unit as yours, having to lug out all of the components for a cleaning session is a tedious and time consuming chore, particularly now that the major change-up in the wife's schedule means that I'm losing my alternate weekends to myself. If I'm going to continue cleaning records, I need to be able to leave stuff set up, or at least easily reconnected with minimal effort, but with enough WAP (Wife Acceptance Factor) that I can leave it out.
Then it dawned on me to use something like a kitchen island/cart that could be self-contained and moved around. Then I stumbled on both your hybrid build and the Vactrola build. Holy crap, PERFECT. If I could find some kind of cabinet with an opening top lid that was wide enough for both the Ultrasonic tank and a platter-based RCM setup (and enough space between them), enough storage space for fluids and brushes, as well as enough space for my 2HP shop vac, that could also be put on wheels to move if necessary, AND still be pretty enough for the wife, I'd be set! I already built the rotating skewer for the ultrasonic, so doing the rest of this should be a cake walk (assuming I can track down the requisite parts cheaply enough)!
My actual question is this: What did you do in order to move the heater switch and timer knob from the Sonix unit to the outside of the cabinet? I noticed that this was discussed as being possible in the manual, but there didn't seem much description of HOW.
And before I get accused of sexism for using that term, my wife would absolutely get quickly irritated by anything so industrial looking sitting in the library/dining/massage area where this would need to reside. It's "interesting" living with someone that openly admits to being bordering on OCD.