- #2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC CRACKED#
- #2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC INSTALL#
- #2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC SOFTWARE#
- #2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC SERIES#
Again, hindsight is 20/20, but live and learn.Īgain, to a pro. After the fact, we learned there are specially designed drill bits for drilling holes in this kind of acrylic. We'd do a bunch of holes and it would crack. I tried to drill a bunch and just couldn't get it right. This provided a smoother surface for the vinyl to lie on.īack to the Plexiglas. We put them in the holes and used an orbit sander. We used the filler pieces of holes to fill up the holes that we didn't need. However, drilling all those holes in the wood wasn't a waste. Even though we added piece of wood underneath, we ended up abandoning it as a waste of time. We thought we'd need a piece of wood to stabilize the whole panel and give the buttons something to hold on to, but we underestimated how strong the steel was. First steel, then new vinyl art, then an acrylic/Plexiglas layer. Notice the Player 1 button in a new hold intersecting with an old hole. Apparently the Video Trivia game had been ANOTHER game before! However, none of the holes were positioned in any way that would compromise the structure of the steel. It looks funny, like there's too many holes because there are too many! There were a few holes underneath the vinyl. The result was laughed at on Twitter, but it looked great to us. They thought what I was doing was pretty funny, but they sure nailed it. I went to a local "machine shop" and told them to do their best. Spend more money on a drill and/or more bits, or enlist the help of a professional. I wouldn't want to try this with a hand-held drill.Īt this point, I had a choice. I bought another drill bit and we got through a few more, but the drill press we were using wasn't strong enough to hold on to the bit. After the fact we learned that there are specific RPMs (speeds) that you should drill steel and we were drilling WAY to fast. The drill bit lasted exactly 1 and 1/2 holes before it burned up. It's a 29mm hole, which is standard for arcade controls. We got a bit-metal "hole saw," is is apparently what you call a big drill bit. Then, John and I transferred our button layout to the original steel panel with a Sharpie Pen.
#2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC CRACKED#
Unfortunately this kind of acrylic is very hard to drill and I cracked two before I gave up. I took a piece of Plexiglas and made a template out of it. Instead, I took part the X-Arcade stick and used its wood top as a template for my stock steel control panel. You can see from the picture on the right that I attempted to make a trackball fit, but ended up sending it back.
#2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC INSTALL#
I bought the Tankstick from X-Arcade with the plan to take it apart and install it into the original control panel that came with my arcade cabinet shell. However, on this project I was really trying to find a balance, and stay cheap and pragmatic but with an eye on quality.
If you like wiring and customization, this could be a good choice for you. Ultimarc has one called the I-PAC that seems to be the standard. You can then buy a PCB Board that will let you map your buttons to keyboard strokes. You can visit a site like Happs Controls and buy the buttons and sticks and trackballs and what not, all to your specs. Custom or StockĪrcade Purists will say you should design your control panel custom, to suit your needs. In retrospect, we know what we could do to make it easier on ourselves, but you live and learn.
This took probably 3 weeks (a day here and there, wait, a day here and there) and was a huge hassle. We were rockin', working occasional evenings and making progress until we got here. This part, the Control Panel, truly kicked our collective butts. I also have no idea what I'm doing, so I've also got ignorance on my side. They will prefer original Arcade CRT monitors and more expensive, higher quality parts. Hardware Disclaimer 2: Many folks that build arcade cabinets have a purist view of how these things should be done. What I'm doing here is putting a computer in a pretty box. I do own some original arcade boards, but if you want to emulate arcade games with MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), you can search the 'tubes.
#2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC SERIES#
This series of posts has nothing to do with that.
#2 PLAYER ARCADE CONTROL PANEL ACRYLIC SOFTWARE#
Software Disclaimer 1: There's all sorts of legal issues around emulating arcade games. This is the third part of a multi-part series I'm going to do about assembling an Arcade Cabinet for my house.
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