Wood-burning on CP?

[NanoMonkey]

This is my first time posting altough I've been lurking for several weeks.

I'm in the process of building a MAME^TM cabinet and am debating what to do for the control panel. It is an AP3 cab and I'm planning to have a fairly standard contorl panel layout (2 8-way sticks, 6 buttons per player, 1 trackball, 1 spinner).
My debate is what to do for control panel graphics: wood burning or vinyl CPO?
The cabinet will be stained and varnished wood and part of me believes it will look better if I burn a few classic characters (pac-man, space invaders, et cetera) into the control panel and apply a nice glossy topcoat than if I simply stick on a layer of vinyl. Since this decision is holding up everything at this point I'd like to get some opinions as to what I should do (yes, the cabinet is already constructed and I've been fighting with this for a week trying to decide what to do before I start drilling and finishing it).

Has anyone wood burned their control panel? Do you like it? Do the grooves detract from it? What did you use for a topcoat? (I tried searching but couldn't come up with anything)

Thanks in advance for any hint or suggestions. And a big THANK YOU to everyone for contributing to such an excellent online resource. I wouldn't have a clue what the next step would be if not for this board.

Thanks!
NanoMonkey

[tommy]

I cant really comment on graphics too much because i mirrored my cp but do what you like, and im sure you cant go wrong , im sure somebody will post something helpfull there are some good people here -tommy

[Trimoor]

Go with the wood burning.  It doesn't create grooves, but rather colors the wood like stain does.  It will absorb the stain differently, creating the contrast.  It can be varnished over like the rest of the cab, but I would suggest adding an extra coat or two to the control panel.

Vinyl would clash too much with stained wood.

[evlbeaver]

I think plain black vinyl would look good as a CPO for a stained wood cabinet.  My cocktail is stained wood and I think the black t-molding, black coin door and black control panels have a really nice contrast against the wood.

[whammoed]

Yes, black would look good but it would make it look more "arcade like" instead of "furniture like" so depends on what you want.  I think the wood burning is a cool idea and would like to see it implemented.  Burn Baby Burn!

[daywane]

I like wood burning. I have yet to do it to a CP but have thoght of it for a long time

[NanoMonkey]

At this point the cabinet seems to be ending up more "furniture like" so I think I'll try wood burning on the control panel. I'll post some pics once I actually make some more progress (probably next weekend at the rate things seem to be going lately).

Thanks for all the comments. I can't wait to get this project done!

NanoMonkey

[Trimoor]

If for some reason you end up hating the wood burning, you can always cover it with vinyl.