With QCF gaming no longer making cases, I’ve been looking to make my own simple wood cases. I don’t have a lot of tools, but wood is cheap at the local Lowes. I pretty much have a handheld power drill, a hand wood saw (not to mention I’m paranoid about automatic saws), and then basic tools. I was going to just simply measure out 6 pieces of wood on one or two sheets of 1/4 inch thick wood, and cut them out with a handsaw, sand them down, and then drill the holes. I know it wouldn’t be fancy, and would have to sand it down and use wood putty to fix it up, but what do you think? I was thinking of also clamping down the top piece with a sheet of plexiglass on top, and drilling the holes through both, so that maybe I could stick some art in it. I’m hoping if all goes well, I can make some extra cash selling them locally.
Theres no real easy way to do this without more power tools. Hand cutting will just be way too inaccurate and rough and no amount of hand sanding will get you anywhere close to what you want.
Also avoid pine at all costs, which is most likely what you have available at Lowes. MDF is soft so its easy to work with and strong to use as a case. Maple might kill you trying to work with hand tools.
I think this is best cheap case of all:
In seriousness, I’d like to add that QCFgaming uses Lexan polycarbonate instead of plexiglass. If you make your cases 8"x10", then you can buy a small 8x10 sheet of it for $4 when you’re wood shopping at Lowes. Shop LEXAN 10" X 8" Clear Polycarbonate Sheet at Lowes.com
I like polycarbonate a bit over plexiglass. But that’s me.
Polycarb Lexan is pretty amazing, a ham fisted gorilla could work with it pretty well. The downside is that it is considerably more expensive than acrylic plexi, but easily worth it.
If making cash is your goal, stick building isn’t the way to do. You will be lucky to break even. Only do it if you really really want to build arcade sticks and will enjoy it. Understand that it will be a huge money sink.
With that said, last chance to save some money before you decide to build a case.
Team Foe Hammer Unfinished Case
Also note that when you do make your first case, it’ll probably be ass. Finishing is the hardest part of making these cases. There’s always random gaps, holes in the paint from sanding too hard. Like rtzdign said you build these for love and because you love building. Odds are you’ll sink yourself in the hole buying tools to make your cases look good before you make money.
Slagcoin will help you if you do want to design cases. I pretty much made my first case off of the simple box design in slagcoin.
http://slagcoin.com/joystick/example2.html
satek is selling a QCFgaming case. He made a few over Christmas break. You should get it.
It’s even $10 less than normal!
I know I got myself two.
Unless you don’t like 6 button vewlix :sad: