Best Material?

[HaRuMaN]

What is the best material to make a control panel out of?  (And the rest of the cabinet, for that matter).  MDF?  Plywood?  #1 Grade Pine?

[abrannan]

Hate to be a pain, but define "best".  Cheapest?  Easiest to find?  Easiest to work with?  Best looking when it's finished?  Most durable?  Most resistant to my friend's drool when they come over and look at my cabinet?  

Honestly, you can get a good finish from whatever you're using.  I used 1/2" MDF, but some people will tell you that's too thin.  My next CP will most likely be sheet metal.  

[HaRuMaN]

Let me clarify...  I want durability, as well as good looking when its finished.  I want my friends to drool over it when they come over.  

[Ghoward]

That

[Lilwolf]

If you are going to paint it or lexan (or anything) 3/4 MDF is great.  Strong and VERY easy to work with... expect a LOT of sawdust... so make sure to use a mask (or you WILL be coughing for a few days).

note about MDF... don't handle it liquids well.  But if you are spilling too much on your control panel... something else is wrong.

[HaRuMaN]

Yeah, I probably am going to paint it...  I want it to have a "classic arcade" style.  The CP will have to take a lot of punishment... my brother and I are very competive, we love fighter games, so it'll have to withstand button mashing and fist pounding.  

[Ghoward]

Yeah, I probably am going to paint it...  I want it to have a "classic arcade" style.  The CP will have to take a lot of punishment... my brother and I are very competive, we love fighter games, so it'll have to withstand button mashing and fist pounding.  

Then I would have to go with MDF.

Gary

[dphirschler]

It depends on what you want to do.  I used shop grade birch plywood.  It is light and more durable than mdf.  But it is also more expensive.  And although it is very smooth, I doubt I could totally hide the grain if I were to paint it.  One other concern... the plywood is about a 16th more narrow than the mdf, so the t-molding would be a concern if you are not going to laminate it.


Darryl

[eightbit]

If your going to screw into it you need to go plywood, MDF does not hold screws well. If your going to bolt in your joysticks, which if your a cabinet rocking fool then you need to, it wouldn't matter if your using mdf or plywood.

You  can do a lot of other things rather than just painting it, you can use laminate, contact paper, vinyl, arcade control panel overlays, plexi glass. All of those were used in real arcade games.

A plain painted panel is kind of boring. Laminate is expensive and requires more tools to work but is probably the most durable. Contact paper is cheap/fast but can look cheesy and is low on the durability scale. Vinyl is nice easy to work, relatively cheap, and some people like the feel its reasonably durable but doesn't like cigarette burns. Arcade control panel overlays can be expensive  but generic ones can be found for a good price, they can look really good, they aren't as boring as a solid color panel, and they were made to stand up to the abuse. Plexi glass is nice because its cheap, easy to work, it allows you to print your own art work to put under it and will stand up to a good amount of abuse.

If you look through the examples section in the faq you will see examples of all of these and probably some other options that I've missed.

[papaschtroumpf]

MDF is your best bet, easy to work with and smooth, so you can paint it, laminate it, etc...
The comment about screws is right on, but bolts are no problems.
For the most abuse prevention, cover the CP with a lexan top.
Make sure whatever you do it's well attached to the cabinet itself, you woudn't want it to be wiggling at the crucial moment...