I agree, cutting the plate is the right call. Excited to see this one come together. Great craftsmanship.
Thanks! I'm taking my time (obviously) but also finding the time has been extremely difficult. I think it is the perfect storm of the ages of my kids. There is always something I have to go to or shuttle them to, etc. There is barely any time to keep the house running (groceries, laundry, lawn care, etc.) never mind extra time for hobbies. Things are actually less stressful at work than they are at home!
Anyway, I drilled some holes and cut the joystick mounting plate this past weekend. It's progress!
The process was the same as the action buttons:
- use an awl to mark the center
- drill 1/4" down (this time with a 24mm forstner bit)
- use 1/16" drill bit to drill through center all the way through the panel
- use larger forstner bit from the back so that there is room for the button nut
Here's a front shot of all 4 buttons drilled down 1/4" except the one to the far right is finished.
Here's a close up of the front - I used painter's tape to try and preserve the art.
Here's a close up of the back. You can see the other pilot holes to the right of the hole that is drilled where the other buttons would go. This entire process would be MUCH easier with a drill press but I don't have one so I had to just wing it.
All 4 button holes are drilled out and ready for test fitting.
Looking good. I was nervous about the buttons on the end because they had to be dead on due to the art - I think it came out pretty nice.
This is how it will look when the cabinet is finished in 2025.
I'm going to need to make some button inserts for the admin buttons so people will know what they do. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to call them. The button on the far left will probably be "Exit" and the button on the far right will probably be "Pause" but the middle 2 are kind of weird. For MAME, one of them will need to be "Coin" and the other "Start" but for any consoles they will need to be "Select" and "Start". I probably should have thought this through...