Woody - Arcade Stick [Done]

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edekoning:
Now I still need to route out that 3mm for the plexi, so how to do that. I started watching some random woodworking videos on Youtube, until one got gave me an idea.

Take a spare piece of wood, and using a circular saw, cut a hole that matches the dimension of the plexiglas. Then cut this panel to size => slightly bigger than the arcade stick. Now we essentially have a window frame that can be clamped onto the arcade stick. There is enough surface area width to keep the router stable while cutting. I then keep 3 clamps on at all time, and move them around while routing. So happy that turned out nice. There are some router marks on the middle brace, but those I will sand away.

edekoning:
I needed to drill 5 holes in the back, one for the USB connector, and 4 for buttons. However, I also need to use the router to run a round-over bit along the top and bottom of the front and back side. The holes would interfere with the router bit, so I need to route the edges before drilling the holes.

The oak furniture panel I bought was chamfered along side the long edges. At the start of the build I debated whether or not trim the panel to get rid of this chamfer. But when you stack the panels together it does look nice and breaks-up otherwise boring sides.

edekoning:
I only routed the edges of the backside, so I could put the case on its still flat front side. This would allow me to drill the holes downwards, instead of sideways.

To prevent tear-out during drilling I wanted to clamp a piece of scrap wood to the inside. I took no picture of this, but the entire setup with the weight of the clamps on one side, and the case standing on its side, was shaky as hell. Then I realized I had this 3mm slot that I would be cutting through, and thought that could be an additional source of tear-out. Luckily, we recently bought some wall art that was protected with a sheet of 3mm MDF. So I cut a strip from this, and jammed it in the slot. And look at that, an almost perfect fit.

I then spent another hour cutting strips to fill up the entire slot along the inside, but none would go in easily. Most likely due to glue buildup inside the slot, and or the slot not actually being 3mm everywhere. So I just gave up on this.

The drilling of the holes went fine until the last one (figures). I guess I did not tighten the clamps enough, but as I started to drill, the vibration made the clamps fall off, shifting the case slightly. And before I knew it the hole was slightly offset compared to the others.

With that out of the way, I rounded the front edges with the router, marking the wood working part of the build essentially done.

edekoning:
Time for sanding. Lots of sanding as I caused a lot of wood burns with my router work. I then quickly realized that sanding oak is a lot work work than sanding plywood, or MDF. Especially when sanding by hand (my sander broke a while ago). I mainly focused on getting the outside to look nice and smooth. Sanding away all the corner burn marks on the inside was too much for me. but hey its the inside, to no-one will care about it (except me).

Then it was time to oil the wood. I bought 2 cans of Osmo TopOil, which should protect the wood from water and dirt. First two layers of the natural color, which adds some white pigment to slightly brighten the wood. Then two layers of clear satin, to slightly darken the wood and give it a somewhat wet look. 10 hours of drying between each layer :o

The result is awesome, and wood feels really smooth and nice to touch. Super happy with it.

edekoning:
Next up is plexiglass, mounting of the controller board (GP2040-CE V5.6E - Fight Board), and wiring everything up. Waiting on some parts to arrive now, and I expect to not have any time in the coming 2 weeks to work on this. So might be a while before I post any progress.

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