Hello I’m building a little arcade stick. Something simple for my wife to play pacman. I was using a pre made wooden box i modified. But now I’m realizing I may have a problem with part of what I want to do. The wood on the top of the box is fairly thin. About 1/8" thick. I was going to lay a sheet of lexan on top and sandwich some art in between . I didn’t want to see the screws holding the stick in. But with the wood so thin I won’t be an to countersink them in. I was thinking of taking a spare piece of wood I have of the same thickness and screwing that on top to add some thickness so I can still pull off what I want. You do you guys think. Thanks for any input you can share.
Screwing a second piece of wood to the box is going to cause the same problems as screwing the joystick in. I would recommend wood glue. It’s actually a lot strong than you think and, if you watch a few videos and do your research, it can end up more stable that screws would have been.
I’d like to read what the woodworkers have to say. You may try the woodworking specific thread for this question too.
I agree with all the above. The Offical Hit box controllers are made the same way most wooden cases are around here.
MDF (medium density fiberboard) or even HDF (high density fiberboard) or a flat steel or aluminum plate. Some people might include bracing pieces or a Plywood layer under the panel to re-enforce the panel more. Usually plexy is used on top to hold the art in place, but I seen some terrific all plexy panels as well.
MDF is probably the favorite material, as Darksakul said. It’s probably one of the easiest materials to work with, and is great for painting. However, whatever you do, get a good respirator, the stuff is pretty much a solid block of poison, and inhaling the dust is just asking for unwellness.
If you want a good wood that’s safer, and great for painting, I’ve always like poplar.
Metal panels are best if you want to mount Japanese parts. But that’s probably overkill for pacman.
Also, polycarbonate is a bit tougher than plexiglass, too. But plexi is just usually for sandwiching art.
best way is to used 1/2 inch MDF and 1/8 inch plexy, works really nice, the MDF its not that expensive, you can get a 24X48 panel at home depot for $9 and the plexy for about $3, all of this suggestions are if you decided to get rid of the 1/8 wood, otherwise I guess you could try the second piece on top.
I agree that MDF is great stuff for building a box. But as Nerrage pointed out already, the stuff makes a HUGE mess when working with it. Whatever you do, make sure you have at the bare MINIMUM a dust mask, but preferably a respirator. Never saw/drill/route the stuff in areas that you will spend time in as the dust can take weeks to finally settle down and stop coating everything you own. I once made the mistake of drilling out a button hole inside a spare bedroom of mine, and it was incredible how much dust was in there. (A bit of sunlight came in through the window a few days later when the clouds and rain had gone away, and you could still see fine particulate matter floating in the air).
Another thing with MDF is that when you go to finish the stuff, it will soak up a ton of primer/paint. No matter how smooth a surface you think you have, it’s always a good idea to put a nice heavy layer of primer/sealant on there so that it won’t sop up the paint and create an uneven quality finish. In addition, both the inside and outside of the box should be primed/sealed in case something spills on top of the joystick and liquid gets inside. That can really make a mess.
I used to use MDF, but now I use, and much prefer, baltic birch plywood. Rockler and woodcraft carry it. It’s what I use for my SimpleCases now. It’s very strong and stiff, even at 1/4". No MDF dust to worry about.
he is not asking about actually building the whole box, he was just asking about the top panel, since he already has a wooden box, in which case eliminates all the prep steps (no sanding,priming) all he has to do is worried about drilling the holes on the panel and the plexy.
That piece is an extra piece i had, so was planning on gluing (and nailing it to the top) to add to the thickness and allow me to countersink the screws in. The lexan will go on top.
What if you cut that extra piece to fit inside the existing case? You can glue it inside and put some weight and let it dry overnight.
If you go with the outer route (gluing the extra piece above the case), that piece would be visible at the sides and wont look right IMO. If you follow my advice, the case will look much better on the outside and will remain the same height as original.
That’s. An excellent idea. But I’m concerned about the space in side. Its small enough as it is. Its hard to tell from the photo but I’m doing a mini stick. Its only 8.5 x 6 x 2.5. So things are gonna be tight. I will be giving this a coat of of spray paint anyway, figured i would use some wood filler to fill any gaps, sand smooth and paint.
