First arcade stick

[Ninjadog]

Hi retro gamers of the internet. Check out the arcade stick I made. This will tide me over till I get enough tools and knowledge to build a cab.

Here's my parts. Seimitsu LS30 with smoke ball topper and Seimitsu buttons in smoke and a red, zero delay encoder, and a cutting board.


Found this beauty of a cutting board on sale at CrappyTire, it's only 10mm thick, that first one would have needed routing and that a tool I don't have yet.


Holes drilled, stick mounting spot prepped.


First issue. Finding 24 and 30mm hole making devices in a small town is impossible. I bought some sae holesaws 1"=25mm 1 1/8=29mm I figured 1mm +/- wouldn't be too big of a deal. The 24mm button sits pretty slutty in the hole, but at least that hole is for the joystick. It's pushed to one side for dramatic effect, it covers it if I center it. The 30's will need some sanding.


So far so good


All wired up to play a few games first. China never sent me the 5 pin sanwa type connector with the encoder so I had to hack apart some connectors for the ferrels and spliced it to the Seimitsu 5 pin connector that came with the stick.


Now for the part I lack skills and tools for, the wood working. Researched a bunch of ways to do this but lack of tools and impatience helped me end up with this simple number. I did pre drill before I screwed but this wood must have been old or damaged?


Looked good enough for me. I found a 7/8" spade bit that day and from the top placed my coin and 1P buttons and went ahead and drilled.


Doh, should have looked underneath too. The stick mounting plate was in the way, but was no match for my hack saw.


Base got hole drilled, pretty proud of that one using 2 different spade bits to make a recessed spot for the nut to reach the button. And exiting paint job time.


By this point I had way past my budget and was finding whatever I could around the garage to make the mounting work. As you can see my wood working skills are under construction.


And wired up.


Found one of those cheap cardboardy wood panels on one of my daughters broken doll bed thing, it's not pretty but it will do. Some rubber feet.


Did a little burning/engraving of a Boognish. It works just fine.




Too bad I found out about this place after the build, oh well. Player 2 will be even better I'm sure. I was worried the stick is too low, but it feels fine for the most part. I was going originally to get a R-Pie, but since I had an old lappy collecting dust I turned it into a dedicated gaming rig. Originally threw Ubuntu on there with RetroPie/Emulation station but I eventually got tired of figuring out Ubuntu and went back to Windows 8. I'm now playing straight from MAME and probably going to install AttractMode soon. I'm sure some AM threads are next for me.

Anyway stoked to be here and can't wait to build more arcade stuff.

[BGoulette]

Nice work! At least you followed through and got something working! Me, I have a collection of drawings and sketchup files collecting virtual dust on various hard drives. Some day...

[luizw81]

Good Macgyvering on your stick!

Sent from my SM-J320R4 using Tapatalk

[Ninjadog]

Nice work! At least you followed through and got something working! Me, I have a collection of drawings and sketchup files collecting virtual dust on various hard drives. Some day...

Thanks. C'mon then, I don't have any of that stuff, but it probably would have helped.

[Ninjadog]

Good Macgyvering on your stick!

Sent from my SM-J320R4 using Tapatalk

Thanks...Story of my life

[Titchgamer]

Sure I saw a project thread on this somewhere else on the net :s

Anyways love the chopping board top looks great, I may of stained it personally but yeah looks smart.

Your back has some to be desired but I think your biggest problem there was using fibre board instead of hard wood.

Other than that looks like you have learnt the 2 biggest lessons of this hobby: Plan well and take ya time

[smass]

Nice.  I like these kinds of builds because they can be encouraging to folks who are hesitant to start a project.  We have some amazing professional grade projects going on BYOAC, but not everyone is a master carpenter.  You learn best by DOING, so my advice to newbies is, research a bit, and then dive in.  Your first project will lead to your best project somewhere down the line. 

[Ninjadog]

Nice.  I like these kinds of builds because they can be encouraging to folks who are hesitant to start a project.  We have some amazing professional grade projects going on BYOAC, but not everyone is a master carpenter.  You learn best by DOING, so my advice to newbies is, research a bit, and then dive in.  Your first project will lead to your best project somewhere down the line. 

Haha, I almost never posted here because I took a look at some of the builds and WOW. There are some super professional and beautiful cabs posted here. It felt a little like seeing a beat up old Ford on a Porsche lot. But I'm proud of it and think it's pretty sexy. But everyone has to start somewhere right, and if I inspire someone else then that is awesome too.

[Ninjadog]

Sure I saw a project thread on this somewhere else on the net :s

Anyways love the chopping board top looks great, I may of stained it personally but yeah looks smart.

Your back has some to be desired but I think your biggest problem there was using fibre board instead of hard wood.

Other than that looks like you have learnt the 2 biggest lessons of this hobby: Plan well and take ya time

You may have allegedly seen it at 
I did have some clear coat on it at one time when I was trying to lacquer in a paper graphic, but the paper started to bubble and I ended up sanding it raw again. Then went with the burning art and got too impatient to wait another 3 or 4 of painting and waiting, I had games to play.
LOL it may look like I learned those lessons but determination and resourcefulness is what got it done.
In the meantime I might make another base with a slant and probably end up putting that clear coat on while I try to art up my front end.

[Ian]

Great Job re-purposing!