Thanks for the comments lads

Bill I am with you now about the gravity thing, you could do it with the plate on top as you say

, Mine would not have balanced anyway so did it the holding the stud method.
Nick , I am not sure exactly what the original switch gear looked like as mine did not have it but there would still be room for one shelf under it I think, or if you thought it was worth the hassle and wanted two shelves you could move the switch gear to panel mounted above the headstock ?
I have got some more bodywork done on the cabinet. The end cover that goes over the change gears had at some point in the past had the hinges welded back on and was misaligned , it also had an extra two holes drilled in it where a school must have bolted a small plate across the cover so kids could not open it, there was also a big gap at the top edge of the plate when it was held in the right position. The cover is alloy so more of a pain to put right as it needed T.I.G welded.
The previously welded repair to both hinges, the welding was ok but it had not been held in the right position when welded and the outsides of the welds were messy.

I cut the hinges off the cover and cleaned up both the hinges and cover with grinder.

After tinkering with the cover and the casing that it mated against till it matched nicely I clamped the door in place then tacked the hinges back on in the right position. This photo shows them ready to tack.

I then took the cover back off and welded up the hinges on the bench, it was not good stuff to weld and ended up welded but not pretty so I have dressed them up with the grinder and a soft disc, the finished job looks ok.

This shot shows the two extra holes that had been drilled in the housings above the clamps holding things in the right place, I have countersunk then ready to weld, the holes near the bottom of the shot are the proper ones where the spring latch fits.

This is them after they are welded up.

This is the top edge that left a gap when fitted in place , I have built the edge up by running a couple of beads of weld along the top, I will file it flat and square so it fits with better gap.

There is still a few bits to do on the cabinet but its getting there

Mick.