Dual Trackball CP

[coasternuts]

What do the wise say of this control panel?

I am planning on doing an overlay and this will eventually be attached to an upright cabinet.  I plan on using 2 Ultimarc 2 1/4" trackballs.

1)  If I use 3/4" MDF or 3/4" plywood, with the overlay, will the 3/4" t-molding be good enough?  Blue only comes in 3/4", that's why I ask.
2)  Is it difficult to recess the mounting plate in MDF and/or plywood?  I'm a newb when it comes to woodworking.
3)  Any reason I should not use any of the above?  Button layout, etc.   The 1/2 player buttons I still haven't decided whether I'll put them on the cabinet or on the panels.


Thanks for looking!

[fogman]

The triangular pitched buttons may be a problem.  You would be covering up the middle button when hitting the tops ones.  Think missile command.  You should be able to get three buttons in an arc, about how your fingers are.  If you want to be ambidextrous, put three buttons in the center and three more one the end.  That way there are three buttons to the left and right of each player.  You may have to reconfigure for some games, but it will work.

As for the construction, 3/4" T-Moulding is the same width as the MDF and plywood.  I assume the plywood will be painted, so any deviation will be so slight you'll never notice.  Its works fine.

The one and two player buttons can be anywhere you want, as long as they don't interfere with the gaming buttons.

Hope this helps...

[GGKoul]

I put 3 buttons above the trackball.  It works great!

[GameOver]

2) Is it difficult to recess the mounting plate in MDF and/or plywood? I'm a newb

I never did this either until I recessed my joysticks from under the control panel.  (I guess it's not 'recessed' since their under the panel?  What does that make them?  sub-cessed? 

What worked like a charm for me was to make a router template from scrap which I clamped to the CP, then just routed out everything inside the template.  You can adjust the depth of your router so you only get out what you need.  Really not too difficult, a little tricky figuring out how big to make the template for a rookie.  Once you have the template, it's a piece of cake.

[fogman]

You don't really need a template, because the recess should be larger that the trackball mounting anyway.  The remaining material will be more than sufficient to hold the trakcball in.

I just cut out the mounting template, traced it on the underside of the panel and made sure I had routed out the outline completely.  No problem and unlike kinergarden, you SHOULD stay outside the lines.

[coasternuts]

The button layout came from crossing centipede/millipede with golf games.

[fogman]

I used 3/4" thick MDF and routed down about 1/4" (so I still had 1/2" thick MDF between the TB and the mounting plate.

[Will]

Since I was working on my recessed TB yesterday I can give you some feedback.It is not easy for a newb woodworker luckily I had some help we had to make two templates one for the TB hole and one for the recessed edge for plate to sit on.First we

[JThw8]

I learned with time and patience....and wood putty...anything is possible.   I dont have a router and I am terrible with woodworking.  I wanted the mount plate recessed in the CP so it would be flush and hidden once an overlay was put on it. 

I traced the mount and then marked off for the bolts.  I centered the trackball over the bolt holes and marked the edges.  I then used a jigsaw to cut out the center to fit the trackball and to recess the edges I just used a dremel with a burred griding bit and alot of patience.  At the end I used wood filler to blend the edges and now if you run your hand along the top with your eyes closed you cant even tell where the mount plate is.  Wood filler is my friend

[fogman]

Sorry, I was speaking about the recess to keep the trackball high enough - the bottom side recess.  I reread the post and realized he was speaking about the top side recess (for the mounting plate).  I was working off of GameOver's post.  Sorry about that!

As far as the 1/8" thick top recess, yes I agree you would need the hands of a Jedi Master to do it without a template.  Have you thought yet about what the layers will be?  Meaning, when the mounting plate is recessed, are you going to cover the entire CP with Lexan?  In that case, you can cut the shape of the mounting plate out of Lexan, and use that for your recess.  Or, you could keep the mounting plate above the lexan, which for me is not a problem.. For others, it is.

Sorry again to all for not reading carefully enough!

[coasternuts]

Trackball control panel sandwich = CPO + recessed plate + 3/4" MDF + recessed trackball casing.

That way, I can put CPO over the plate without seeing how the ball is attached.

I didn't want to use lexan because I'm not sure how high I can get the Ultimarc 2 1/4" trackball.

I'll (hopefully) get to try it out on a sample this weekend.