JPanel formatting

Question

After succesfully coding a couple of panels to show correctly in my frame, I continued to develop the menu until the formatting for one of my menus reset itself. I'm not sure what happened, and if I message out the things I've changed it still doesn't format correctly. Basically the menu consists of a frame, with each menu as a smaller sized panel in the middle of the frame. The EquipPanel now resizes itself to take over the entire frame, rather than just be a smaller box inside the frame. Any help would be great, if you can spot the code or even suggest another plan of attack to build the menu. Here's the code:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
public class NecMenu implements ActionListener
    Font            f;
    Font            f2;
    Dimension       maxSize;
    Container       c;
    JLabel          title;
    JLabel          sign;
    JPanel          currentPanel;
    JPanel          mainPanel;
    JPanel          equipPanel;
    JPanel          gangPanel;   
    JButton         viewGangs;
    JButton         viewEquip;
    JButton         viewMain;
    JFrame          frame;
    int             titwid;
    public NecMenu()
        mainPanel   = new MainPanel();
        equipPanel  = new EquipPanel();
        gangPanel   = new GangPanel();
        title       = new JLabel( "Title", JLabel.CENTER );
        f           = new Font( "Lucida Sans", 1, 30 );
        viewGangs   = new JButton( "View Gangs" );
        viewEquip   = new JButton( "View Equipment" );
        viewMain    = new JButton( "Main Menu" );
        sign        = new JLabel( "Signature" );
        f2          = new Font( "Lucida Sans", 2, 14 );
        title.setFont( f );       
        sign.setFont( f2 );
        runMenu();
    void addComponentsToPane(Container pane)
        Dimension size = title.getPreferredSize();
        currentPanel = mainPanel;
        pane.add( title );
        pane.add( sign );
        pane.add( viewMain );
        mainPanel.setBorder( new LineBorder( Color.black, 3 ) );
        mainPanel.setBounds( 10, 46, frame.getWidth() - 20 - 6, 490 );
        equipPanel.setBorder( new LineBorder( Color.black, 3 ) );
        equipPanel.setBounds( 10, 46, frame.getWidth() - 20 - 6, 490 );
        gangPanel.setBorder( new LineBorder( Color.black, 3 ) );
        gangPanel.setBounds( 10, 46, frame.getWidth() - 20 - 6, 490 );
        pane.add( mainPanel );
        pane.add( gangPanel );
        pane.add( equipPanel );
        gangPanel.setVisible( false );
        equipPanel.setVisible( false );
        title.setBounds( ( frame.getWidth() - size.width ) / 2, 5, size.width, size.height );
        size = sign.getPreferredSize();
        sign.setBounds( 780 - size.width, 540, size.width, size.height );
        viewGangs.setBounds( 250, 200, 300, 30 );
        viewEquip.setBounds( 250, 300, 300, 30 );
        viewMain.setBounds( 250, 538, 300, 28 );
        viewGangs.addActionListener( this );
        viewEquip.addActionListener( this );
        viewMain.addActionListener( this );
        mainPanel.add( viewGangs );
        mainPanel.add( viewEquip );
    void createAndShowGUI()
        frame = new JFrame( "Nec" );
        frame.setSize( 800, 600 );
        JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated( true );
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
        addComponentsToPane( frame.getContentPane() );
        frame.setVisible( true );
    void runMenu()
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater( new Runnable()
            public void run()
                createAndShowGUI();
    public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent a )
        Object source = a.getSource();
        if ( source == viewGangs )
            changePanel( gangPanel );
        else if ( source == viewEquip )
            changePanel( equipPanel );
        else if ( source == viewMain )
            changePanel( mainPanel );
    void changePanel( JPanel panel )
        currentPanel.setVisible( false );
        panel.setVisible( true );
        currentPanel = panel;
}and EquipPanel
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.JComponent.*;
public class EquipPanel extends JPanel implements ChangeListener, ActionListener
    EquipPanel[]    tabs;
    String[]        tabNames;
    JTabbedPane     pane;
    Font            f;
   EquipPanel()
        int i;
        tabs        = new EquipPanel[ Equipment.types.size() ];
        tabNames    = new String[ Equipment.types.size() ];
        pane        = new JTabbedPane( JTabbedPane.TOP );
        f           = new Font( "Lucida Sans", 0, 14 );
        for ( i = 0; i < Equipment.types.size(); i++ )
            tabNames[ i ]   = Equipment.types.get( i ).toString();
            tabs[ i ]       = new EquipPanel( tabNames[ i ], this );
            pane.add( tabNames[ i], tabs[ i ] );
            pane.addChangeListener( tabs[ i ] );
        this.add( pane );
        this.setBounds( 400,200,500,300);
    EquipPanel( String name, EquipPanel main )
        ArrayList arr   = Equipment.determineArray( name );
        JButton[] buttons = new JButton[ arr.size() ];
        for ( int i = 0; i < arr.size() - 1; i++ )
            buttons[ i ] = new JButton( arr.get( i + 1 ).toString() );
            add( buttons[ i ] );
            buttons[ i ].addActionListener( main );
    public void stateChanged( ChangeEvent ce )
    public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent ae )
        String source =( ( JButton ) ae.getSource() ).getText();
}and MainPanel if you wanted to see it in action
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
public class MainPanel extends JPanel
    public MainPanel()
        setName( "Main" );
}Thanks guys

Answer 1

Read this section from the Swing tutorial on "Using Layout Managers":
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/layout/index.html
Absolute Positioning is what you want.