Just got laser cut control panels back.

[Blakey]

Just got my control panels back, but maybe this isn't the look I should be going for on a black laminated cab?

Guess I could always stick some marble contact over it...

[Blakey]

2P control panel, awful photo, needs more (any) sunlight.

J-sticks and ultimarc trackball.

I'm thinking the colour scheme might be overboard atm, perhaps I should tone it down somewhat? Suggestions.

(btw: Jokes about the marble contact, brushed stainless looks awesome, cleaning will be fun, but the looks!!)

[Witchboard]

Actually, I like the bare metal look.  I would definately change the barrel screws you have though.  I just get the picture of bloody knuckles.  The only thing you would have to worry about is fingerprints.

[Doc-]

Parts Express sells some heavy black viynl that is textured and provides a nice look if you want plain black.  It goes on like contact paper, but it is pretty thick and hard to scratch.

  http://www.partsexpress.com/

[jcoleman]

2P control panel, awful photo, needs more (any) sunlight.

J-sticks and ultimarc trackball.

I'm thinking the colour scheme might be overboard atm, perhaps I should tone it down somewhat? Suggestions.

I'd go with black joysticks, move the 2p button to the 2p side, and white buttons in the middle.  Also, just a personal preference, but I'd go with red, green, then blue.  That's how the Super Street Fighter II cabs did it, anyway.  

Coleman

[jcoleman]

Oh, how much did laser cutting cost, anyway?  Where did you have it done?  Mail order?

Coleman

[JoyMonkey]

You should drill the joystick and trackball mounting holes with a counter-sink bit, to get the screws flush with the panel surface.
This looks a lot like a panel I did last year:

[pathdoc2]

Those metal control panels are way cool.  Nice work.  I'd leave them as is.

[RayB]

Leave it as is! But it will require constant polishing. There's nothing worse than constant hand grease being rubbed against that kind of surface.

Second thing, get some nice chrome carriage bolts instead of those screws.

Lastly, if you do decide on covering it up, for gods sake stay away from that marble contact paper! Auugh!! :-D

Oh and if you cover it up, beware that if you use the method described above, where your bolts are all flush with the metal panel, then you won't be able to remove any bolts in the future without breaking through the convering. There's nothing wrong with using nice chrome or black carriage bolts on top.

[JustMichael]

Blakely, if you want to change the bare metal to black you could try getting it powder coated.  Extremely durable too!

[AlanS17]

How much does that laser cutting cost? Does anybody know? And where would you get it done?

[JoyMonkey]

Prices for this kind of fabrication vary greatly. Mine isn't laser cut, I had our CNC machinist at work cut mine and have no idea what he'd charge for something like this; we usually use the cnc router for machining complex sign parts.
Try calling a local sign company and ask if they do cnc routing or laser cutting (though I'd imagine cnc would be cheaper and easier to find).

[AGGIEZ]

Just got my control panels back, but maybe this isn't the look I should be going for on a black laminated cab?

Guess I could always stick some marble contact over it...

Looks sharp, but fingerprints are going to show up on that thing bad...

[unclet]

Yeah I would go with rounded top screw heads, then there will not be any bloody knuckles.....  good job!

[ani]

Looks awesome! I would swap out some of the buttons as well, just put your 2p start over on the right. And personally I would prefer all black buttons, maybe a few red in this case.

[Blakey]

First off: I was joking about the marble contact, stainless is where it's at. I know it's going to look like ass after a bit of play, but 3M stainless steel polish works wonders.

Cost: I was quoted AUD$80 for the one long CP, 2 short CP's & another 100x100 panel with lots of little holes in it including material. Material is 0.9mm stainless, brushed finish. As the laser place ended up borking my timber cut somewhat I got them for free. I'd suggest sending CAD files to all the laser cutters in the area, as I had quotes on the timber cutting vary from $140 to $888.

Bolts: If you look closely you'll see there's only 2 bolts/stick, I just used them to hold it in place for the photos. Final version will use dome allen head bolts, either chrome steel, or stainless. Black steel if I can't get either of those.

Buttons: I put the two holes where the black buttons were as an afterthought, and to balance it symmetrically. I think I'll use them for pause and escape. Coinage will be via 20c coin door (wired to both '5' and '6') or shifted IPAC function. I put 1UP and 2UP next to each other as there are also two vertical CP's that have no start buttons (plus P1Start + P2start = escape if I want to use that shifted function.

Joymonkey: How thick was your panel? Mine's .9mm, I hadn't considered csking before. Yours looks great, I'd never seen another stainless panel in my searching before.

I'll bend up the panels next week which will give some much needed rigidity, but right now it's time to break out the router and start building.

[vputz]

I like the look of these, certainly.  If fingerprints are too much of a problem, would a very thin lexan cover alleviate the problem any?

My opinion's divided about the multicolor buttons.  I eventually went with the "all controls for a given player are one color" motif ("red player", "blue player") which looks OK, but I agree that on a classy brushed-metal CP like that the color splash of so many colors in one place looks a bit garish.

-->VPutz

[JoyMonkey]

Joymonkey: How thick was your panel? Mine's .9mm, I hadn't considered csking before. Yours looks great, I'd never seen another stainless panel in my searching before.

Mine is 1/8" (3.175mm) brushed aluminum, so you'd need a hammer to do any damage to the thing. Being so thick also made it better for counter sinking machine screws. I made a 1/8" mounting plate for the trackball underneath afterwards, so there is no black lip protruding above the panel like you see in that photo.

[gprime]

Damn. These sexy cp's make me want to make another cabinet.

[Blakey]

Joymonkey: 1/8" is huge, whilst I would have liked to use a thick rigid panel, but seeing as I'm folding it I had to stick with what the folder could handle.

And as it's only .9mm I doubt I can countersink, so button head bolts it is:


I'm still debating what to do with the buttons. Perhaps only two colours for each player, like red on top and yellow below, like the 1P panels. It is an arcade machine after all, it doesn't have to be too spartan and monochrome.