Arcade Controls made from scrap wood

lovelyhead · 1 Dec 2022 at 19:17

Cyber-Mav said:
what witchcraft is these magnets made from that stick acrylic to wood? also id get 1 extra support in the middle since people usually tend to lean on the controls a fair bit.

Magnets like these:

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Just glued them to the acrylic.

Cyber-Mav · 1 Dec 2022 at 21:13

ahh excellent those give me an idea. need to get some.

@lovelyhead those look like the zero delay encoders i see floating about. you didnt want to go custom route using arduino or pi pico?
also you could add a button the the left and right side of the panel for pinball games?

lovelyhead · 1 Dec 2022 at 22:27

Cyber-Mav said:
ahh excellent those give me an idea. need to get some.

@lovelyhead those look like the zero delay encoders i see floating about. you didnt want to go custom route using arduino or pi pico?
also you could add a button the the left and right side of the panel for pinball games?

Yes they are zero delay encoders. I think they are excellent. No perceptible input lag to me.

Cyber-Mav · 2 Dec 2022 at 07:52

The wood you used is way better than the usual mdf stuff cabs are made from. Would love to build one from solid oak.

lovelyhead · 2 Dec 2022 at 07:55

Cyber-Mav said:
The wood you used is way better than the usual mdf stuff cabs are made from. Would love to build one from solid oak.

I would agree. These arcade controls should last decades. It would be very expensive, very heavy and more difficult to make a full arcade machine from solid wood so MDF has it's place.

Cyber-Mav · 2 Dec 2022 at 07:56

Mdf just makes a lot of mess when cutting. Was wondering if any other wood could be used like pine?

lovelyhead · 2 Dec 2022 at 08:00

Cyber-Mav said:
Mdf just makes a lot of mess when cutting. Was wondering if any other wood could be used like pine?

Yes you really need dust extraction and and a resperator when cutting MDF. I cut a lot of MDF and it is an extremely versatile material but it is quite messy.

I suppose you could use any wood material to make a cabinet if you have the right tools and budget.

Cyber-Mav · 2 Dec 2022 at 09:21

hmm, maybe can make a cab from upvc?

lovelyhead · 2 Dec 2022 at 09:24

Cyber-Mav said:
hmm, maybe can make a cab from upvc?

You could make one out of acrylic although it wouldn't be as strong as wood and fixing things like Joysticks and speakers into place would be trickier. It would also be very expensive compared to MDF!

Cyber-Mav · 2 Dec 2022 at 10:29

hmm fully transparent, that sounds like a true calling for RGB leds!!!