Creating blank for Control Panel ? ? ?

[liche]

I wish to replace the existing control panel plate in my TAITO arcade cabinet with a new one so I can start fresh and drill my own holes etc...

Does anyone have experience in machining these??


1.  What type of material works best?

2.  How to precisely bend the piece to the 85 degree angle as required.
I currently do not have a sheet metal bending machine to do this.

Any help appreciated.

L

[AlanS17]

Being that the control panel is metal, unless you have a very different layout planned, I would suggest keeping the old panel and just drilling out the new holes. Even if they overlap some of the old holes the metal will still hold out. My machine was a Batman before it was MAME and it was a Bad Dudes before that. Very different layouts with new holes drilled. It didn't seem to cause a problem. Any extra holes can be covered by an overlay anyways.

Otherwise I would say cut a rectangular chunk out of the old one and bolt down (either on top or through the bottom) a new sheet of metal over the top portion to make new holes.

[liche]

Sounds like a good idea.  I'll check it out.  Anyways, how do you typically cut your holes out when other holes may overlap?

1.  A small hydraulic panel punch would probably work well if I can get my hands on one.

2. Otherwise, maybe use one of those incremental hole enlarger bits.

L