The stand design is good but the look of the stands once completed still looks raw… the material you use needs a lot of work to get that smooth texture… have you any stands built that has a smoother finish? there are gaps and visible screws / bolts that could be covered as well… like Ed said people that showcase their designs on TT (that try to sell their work) have a pretty highbar when standards in craftmanship is concerned…
your LED set up for the stands look great… a little more router work and some way to cover the wood you are using to have a smoother surface I think you would do well… over all it is your work and you have the final desicion on when you think the project is completed but for me looking into this as a potential buyer you dont do enough to convince me I cant make something “close” to your product in my garage with what you have showcased… by no means am I bad mouthing your work… but its an honest opinion to what I would say to myself if I was going to spend money on a stand…
I will be working on this as something to put in my store. I have done so in the past, My though was why mess with all that when there are companies that make fight sticks, hori, madcatz, even the custom builders. Let them deal with PCB Diagrams, burning themselves with the soldering guns, and all that fun. Ill just build a stand people can put them on to help grip it.
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/cammy2.png
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/cammy.png
it started as non adjustable, then was upgraded to adjustability, 3 adjustments on that stand and the top pops off and you can sit on the floor with it…
Was my attempt at a focus attack style paint scheme. Simple. Because I am not an artists. I was more expecting people to buy the unpainted and want to paint it themselves, but i do my best to paint it the way they want when they order one. the Blue one was going to a guy that was going to use paint markers to paint it, i havent heard back from him yet but I was excited to see what he could do. I have thought about getting in touch with some tatoo artist friends I have and let them go to town on some stands and then just put them up on the site and split the profit with them, because I know they can do a way better job than I can. but thats also why we offer the plexi surfacing, a poster or printed graphic behind plexi looks way better than anything I can paint.
But again the paint design is all up to you,
Quit hating on my cyclops stand! I love that thing haha. I wanted to hook up a button that when you pressed it an “Optic Blast!” wav file played and the front section lit up with Red LEDs. It was all just me trying to think of different concepts to give people ideas and be creative with their designs.
So that it wasnt just a piece of furniture.
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/focus.png
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/blue.jpg
http://tefightstands.com/images/c.jpg
"You don’t need to defend your choices, either take the suggestions or not. You asked some of the most critical folks in the community so expect that."
To be honest I was told by a friend not to do this. I expected to get trolled really bad.So thanks.
You all for the most part are giving me good info, good feed back and if i showed you the total progression we have made from stand to stand you would see I am all about progressing this thing to make it the best it can be. i absolutly intend on looking into the MDF i have already emailed a friend that had been telling me to look into it once before about getting together and seeing what we can do with it and his router =)
I am seriouse about the design thing if anyone has a design they want me to try and build let me see it,
The link you showed me for design, mine started like that
but i didn’t like how if the page was opened on a smaller resolution i had to scroll right to even see the navigation buttons for the site as alot of views come from mobile devices and net books.
Alright i re sized those pictures not sure why it made them all huge but there are some larger pictures from our really bad camera
The nature of the internet is to be especially harsh as I’m sure you know already. I respect you for opening yourself and your work to the criticism.
Looking at the larger pics you posted, what kind of wood prep do you do before painting? Wood filling? Sanding?Your finished product should show no signs of screws, bolts, or crevices, and should be slick and smooth in both look and feel.
these are words ‘borrowed’ from an open source summit that i think will fit your intentions.
Some are encouragements, some are preventative, some are expectations. take it as you will
[LIST=1]
[]Don’t make something you don’t use yourself
[]Know who you are making it for
[]Never ascribe to malice what can be explained with stupidity
[]If nobody complains, you’re doing something wrong
[]if you are not prepared for someone else to adapt your work, don’t share it online
[]if you are not prepared for someone else to improve your work, don’t share it online
[]if you are not prepared for someone else to clone your work, don’t share it online
[]if you are not prepared for someone else to trash your work, don’t share it online
[*]Don’t let the fact that you don’t know what you are doing stop you
[/LIST]
Before I wasn’t doing that , Wood filling, Sanding I have started sanding more, and using wood putty and wood glue to fill screw holes that shouldnt need to be accessed again.
I have also started getting the wood cut on my neighbors table saw and pay him to cut it for me because he gets really nice, straight cuts. He spends alot of money on the blades in his table saw. The pieces all fit together really nice now and once I build each section of this latest stand I sanded it like crazy, but with this medium you can only get it so smooth because it is pieces of other wood glued together. Ill post a picture of some of the edges on this latest one in a few with those images of sitting at the stand.
I’m hoping this MDF works out, I am not fond of working with this wood either at first, but its not super expensive and once they are painted and clear coated they are pretty nice.
Ha thank. well take it this way.
- I love my stands i use them everyday. beats the hell out of my stick slipping around in my lap #NoHomo
- That one is tricky i know most people on these forums are more Stick in the lap kinds of people not really my target, but the feedback im getting is good. Sometimes when working on stuff like this you get tunnel vision and you need more eyes on it, who better than “some of the most critical folks in the community”-ed1371
3.i dont understand all them fancy words haha
4.if nobody complains, i dont know whats wrong. Thats why i am here asking you to complain so I can improve TEFightStands to even better than my expectations.
5.When i was first thinking about trying to market the stands, i told one of my friends that made that arcade stand for me, that i took and improved, “I cant wait to see what mods people make on these” I was hoping people would buy them and customize them.
6.I think its apparent i am all about the progression and am even willing to be the one to make the improvements you all can come up with. - see #5 i know if it was me, and i saw my site I would absolutely try to make it myself. I am here to help the people that live in an apartment and cant run power tools, or dont have the time to try and work on something like this but likes the idea
- Haha I mean I did come to SRKs forum and send out the open invitation right?
- who told.
this one slipped past me just saw it. Ill give them a look and see what I can come up with.
Great feedback thank you.
Which bolts were you referring to? the ones in the side of the base come out for the adjustability, there are other bolts on the top piece which are there as and adjustabile setting as well its a bolt through both the top pieces of wood with usually 2 nuts on it the nuts can be removed for a flat surface or more added for more tilt depending on what you like. I have also started sanding them a lot more and filling the screw holes that shouldn’t be getting re accessed.
yeah im just finding out a lot of people don’t like the textured look. Honesty if you saw it in person and touched it your minds might change but i dunno, i understand the smooth surface look being more desired, im looking into MDF.
" I cant make something “close” to your product in my garage with what you have showcased… by no means am I bad mouthing your work… " I take no offense to this as i wasnt going for the high end cabinet style like the other guy.
this is my shop…
http://tefightstands.com/images/shop.jpg
theres a recently aquired table saw and a chop saw in there as well as a lower working surface behind the door.
thanks again for your time to write that out.
liking the pic of your work area! as far as paint… I dont know how cost effective this is but ever thinking of just using some type of covering layer? like the older cabs in the US… they used some type of plastic to cover the wood… kind of like what PDP did with their MK sticks… I dont know what its called but it seems simple enough and kills the time it would take to sand,paint,seal the work…
as far as the bolts and screws… its just my OCD kicking in… I’m all about hiding the unneeded items used to keep something together for a cleaner look… like your hinges on your top panel… maybe you can find something that will open the case but mounted underneath instead of on top… that way you can still have the function of the top panel opening but you wont have that brass metal showing that cuts into the artwork and the finish of the case… just putting in some thoughts… I still think your work is good to go… its just the little things like that will keep most trolls from feeding off your thread haha… I’m sure what they say someone is thinking as well… so there is some worth in “troll feed”… but nothing to get bent about… its a free bump anyways haha!
You can also look into other mediums such as fiberglass, pvc I’m sure you seen custom fiberglass work with audio speaker boxs etc http://www.truckinweb.com/features/0802tr_2003_dodge_ram/photo_08.html
unfortunately it seems you have limited wood working experience in refined woodworking furniture type work.
its going to take some time and practice you should spend sometime at Barnes and Noble or at very least reading woodworking forums
Also be realistic about making a living doing this
Not to crap on your dream but at best this will only be a supplemental income, even our best stick designers don’t live off the money they make, most say they end up making under minimum wage ($5.75) they do it in their spare time as a hobby
I still don’t feel enough leg room the top panel needs to come forward more. It seems like I would kick the hell out of it repeatedly.
I think maybe what your thinking of is something another person mentioned trying to do a veneer, over it, if my understanding of veneer is correct its kind of like thin plastic on one side sticky on the other and you can make something that is rough appear smooth, Im going to do some looking into that as well.
The hinges, I guess they just never bothered me much, I even bought all black hardware for the upgraded one so they matched but I can see how sinking them under the plexi the same way the joy sticks are sunk under the plexi would look a lot cleaner.
I don’t feel ive been trolled to bad still, just getting honest feedback which is what ive been after.
Ide rather come here get trolled for a week, go back to the drawing board and come back with some improvements, over not selling stands.
Thanks again for all the help everyone is giving me.
My grandfather was a very skilled with wood working, wish i would have paid closer attention you know, but I have picked up some things, and my friend/neighbor is really good and has a really nice workshop Ill see what we can come up with.If he can show me I can do it.
don’t need much income to make a living at this, I have cut back on a lot of “extras” so I can make a living at something like this with very little coming in.
I would prefer a career i enjoy over something I hate grinding away at every day.
Speaking of income… while you all are looking at the web site… disgusted with my comic sans font all over the place
(which I still haven’t heard a good replacement font)
Feel free to click some ads I click them on peoples sites, I just clicked the one at the bottom to help SRK out 
I think you should also sell stands with plexi 6 button 2p layout and make it a panel if people wanna build a stick on the inside if you get what i mean.
Are you saying like just the wood panel with the holes pre drilled for joystick and buttons? like this?
Here are those images I said I would get for you.
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/srk/1.jpg
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/srk/2.jpg
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/srk/3.jpg
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/srk/4.jpg
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/srk/5.jpg
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/srk/6.jpg
http://www.tefightstands.com/images/srk/7.jpg
One thing to keep in mind, is some of the stands were built almost a year ago, each one I have built since i always try to find a way to make the next one a little better. ie more sanding and filling the holes, this latest one i even used a caulk to fill some of the spaces.
image 1 you can see the front and back panel are more flush, partially from the straighter cuts, partially from more attention to sanding.
image 2 I tried to make the all the pieces bringing the base together more flush.
Images 4 and 5 are if your sitting directly in front of the stand or whats more comfortable is to kick your legs out to the sides, or off to one side the base is only 17 inches wide.
if you look close at the corner on image 6 you can see where the screw hole was that I covered, this is the most noticeable one i can see on this new stand.
most of those show the leg room fairly well, for scale I am around 5 11
Not sure if you are familar with slag coin but hey have a lot of great tips, in detail about almost everything you should check it out
http://slagcoin.com/joystick/decoration.html
I think the main thing is the paint and the use of a router you should really check out craigslist to get deal