A mitre saw for $15? By the end of the week you won’t have hands.
I think he’s talking about the guides you can get for hand saws. I have an old one from back when I didn’t have much for power tools. I built a 2-player controller with it in the middle of my living room in an apartment I was renting.
Yes, if you remember Catch-22’s old site (“The Joystick Builder”), he recommends using one. I have one myself, and it has served me quite well.
ugh… I went to a private high school so they didn’t teach me woodshop at all!!!
I tried making my cuts today, but I didn’t kno how to do it… the results were disastrous!!!
this is my piece of wood AFTER I had made my cuts. It is 11’’ wide so I do not know if I could even fit it in a mitre box, unless there’s some kinda trick of the trade or common knowledge that I am oblivious of… Other than that I wonder if my saw is too short (I found it in my garage), maybe I should buy a new one??
these are my horrendous pieces for the box!! the pieces on the side are supposed to be 7.5’’ long, with a 3.25’’ and a 2.75’’ side (so they slope!). I think they came out the best. The other two pieces unfortunately, no good at all!! (the top one is a 3.25’’ x 10’’ back panel, the other 2.75’’ x 10’’ front panel)
that’s a dry fit of the box assembly. Even if I tried to screw & glue it all together, I don’t think any amount of sandpaper and wood putty can save it!!!
anybody got any tips?? Of course, if first I dont succeed… ^^v
Sambao, you just gave me a great idea for my next stick, so, thanks man. Time for some new designs!
Criticism: Not much worse than my first attempt; a little, but not much. I didn’t have any experience at all either, but after a while you pick things up.
For one thing, the saw you’re using is for cutting metal, not wood, so you should definitely get a wood saw, the kind of saw that has a big handle, big teeth, and a longer blade. Another thing is that you have to try to cut more evenly; without a guide or a miter you have to constantly be making sure that you’re cutting the wood straight. Try drawing a line with a ruler and pencil across the wood where you’re going to cut it and make sure that your saw is always as much in line with that line as possible. Plus, sanding is your friend. When you have big ol’ humps in the wood like you do there, you can try sanding them out, and if that means that piece won’t fit with the rest, well, either cut a new piece or sand all the other pieces down so that they’ll fit.
When you cut along a line, make sure you never cut on the inside. That way, you can simply sand down the excess later.
:lol: OMFG! What the hell do you call that? Like they said, not a bad design for a new stick. You know you are not suppose to operate heavy machinery or anything or the sort when you’re medicated right? Just fucking with you… you’ll only get better.
Aww man, I’ve never had a woodshop class either. I’d say keep at it though…I don’t even know how you did that to some of the lines.
I’d suggest purchasing some cheap, easy to cut wood so you can practice cutting straight etc.
Keep trying though.
ok! saturday’s update, and it’s pretty good!!
so after yesterday’s travesty, my father decided to lend me a hand, as well as give me some tricks of the trade. so my cutting went something like this:
lookin better??? I got the correct saw this time, and a way to keep my board steady as opposed to wrestling with it. The pieces came out like:
again lookin much better. Still there’s room for plenty error…
I was unable to get the cuts and angle exactly as I had wished, especially if u notice the unevenness at the bottom right corner. But aside from that, lookin alrite.
the lexan was a BITCH to cut!! I was usin a box cutter, and ended up having to break the piece off after I felt the cut was deep enough. They sold plastic cutters in the same aisle as the lexan itself, would you recommend I get those?? Or are they not worth it?? Anyway, I ended up cutting more lexan than I needed, so I spend over half an hour sanding that shit down til it fit snug on the top! pain in the AZZ~!!!
and that’s it for today. I also printed out my top picture and got it laminated!!! Tomorrow the first thing I do is drill the top holes, then paint & sand the box to make it look nicer. Wait for the box to dry, then wire everything up. If all goes well, it’ll be done tomorrow evening!!!
AND THAT WAS A VERY LONG RANT!!! NOW FOR ME TO ASK SOMETHING!!
I already have a stick I got/made in 2003. I bought the box off ebay, the controls at happs, and asked my friend to wire it. This is that joystick:
Being impatient, as well as broke, I took it apart to salvage the buttons instead of waiting for akihabrashop to take orders again. And looking at the box’s design was what aided me in my woodwork. plz look at this pic:
this is a general idea of how my (new) box was screwed. 4 walls, small pieces in interior corners, and I used screws where the BLUE ARROWS are pointing to in order to keep it together.
My question is,
how do you feel about if I had screwed it together such as where the GREEN ARROWS are pointing?? Is that a standard / secure / common way of holding the box together as well???
I would still include interior corner pieces as a mount for a top & bottom panel, but I think I would rather wood glue them to the inside instead of screw…
anyway that was very long!!! not as long as my day has been though. Sorry about that!!!
If you drill in those locations, you’ll want to drill a pilot hole first, otherwise the wood will split.
I made some good progress today, but in some fluke of mine I’ve cut the top WAY too small. I dont know how I’ll add Lexan because the top is going to be wider than the rest of the box, and come down a bit…to try and give it a more arcade feel. I’ll see though. (pics as soon as I manage to)
I’v gone into a bit of a problem. I’m trying to make a stick for use with a ps3 (aka through a psx>usb adapter and making the ps3 regonize it through the use of an analog button), but I don’t know what pcb I should use.
I was thinking Dual Shock 2, but everywhere I look seem to say to never use it, and they don’t seem to provide a picture guide to the solder points either.
So I thought about Dual shock 1, but I can’t find the pictures of THAT soldering point (especially one that shows there the analog’s point is).
So after that I was wondering maybe I should just get a 3rd party controller, but I have no idea which one are easily buy-able at a store, nor which one would lag horribly when used with a converter.
Can anybody give me some advice? Thanks in advance for any help.
the analog button is easy to find get a picture of whatever model you have and someone can point it out
Ok. I’ll post up a few pics when I find some ps1 controllers.
Nyawu i just remembered just do the psx Spiffy solderless hack
http://home.comcast.net/~spiffyshoes/DualShockHack/
BAM theres your analog button
http://home.comcast.net/~spiffyshoes/DualShockHack/PIN_MAP.jpg
Uh oh! Happ is out of Competition joysticks…What do I do?!
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=47066.0
or
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=36770.0
Both quick and reliable.
You can go with ultimates or p360s or refer to the above post.
Has anyone tried just mounting buttons/stick in lexan sheets only? I have three sheets of 1/8" thickness each. I’m assuming just one 1/8 won’t be sturdy enough, but will two? Or would I need all three? Or is this just not feasible, do I really need wood or metal behind it? I’m going to rest the lexan on the 1/2" thick mdf sides of my stick (front, back, sides), and I’m also gonna have a wooden support beam going through the middle of the stick to give the lexan at least a little backing.
what kind of drill bit should i be suing to go threw plexy glass?