Plexi and stuff

[Donpatchi]

Hi all,


I am a 33 year old father with 2 daughters of 8 weeks and a 2.5 year young. offcourse i am a loving husband too  . To show friends and family there is stil some male influance in the house i plan on building me a cab. I have been emulating these arcade games for many years on my computer now and its time for the real deal. Some eye candy in the living room  . How you prepare youre wife for this is a guide on its own.



I have been reading these forums and all the nice guides on Byoac for a couple of weeks.

I have made loads of designs in sketchup which have given me better insights. Even with all the documentation one can find on the WWW and especialy here you can sure learn alot. But still I remain with questions.

1) One of those questions is how to attach a plexi on a CPO without visible screws, are the actionbuttons enough to hold it tight?

2) if you build a cpo as you do in the picture I included. Do you actualy glew the 2 pecies together?

3) is the JLF-TP-8YT (Sanwa) a recomended stick for playing Shmups, fighters and 2D scrolling games  (wonderboy etc)?

4) i read on slagcoin about restrictor plates but i cant realy figure out if i would need it. Which would be recomended for my prefered games?


May my prayers be heard.



Donpatchi from Belgium
 

[shponglefan]

To answer a few of your questions:

1) The buttons should be enough to hold down the plexi without additional screws.  If you put T-molding around the edge, I also finds this helps keep the plexi in its place.

2) You shouldn't have to glue anything together.  For mounting joysticks, a router can be used to route out a recessed area for flush mounting the joystick mounting plate.

3) Can't comment, haven't used that joystick.

4) Restrictor plates are only really needed if you want to turn an 8-way joystick into a 4-way or 2-way.  Some games play better with true 4-way or 2-way joysticks (for example, Pac-man, Dig-dug, Frogger, etc).

[Ginsu Victim]

3) It's what the Street Fighter IV cabs use, I do believe. Good stick.

[Donpatchi]

thanks for the quick replies.

To coment on 2). As you can see in the pic the panel is build out of 3 layers. The base plate where you mount the stick on, a plate to cover it and a plexi to protect it. So if i understand correclty what you are saying then the 3 plates are hold together with buttons and the T-molding, right?

[Neverending Project]

I believe what they are saying about #2 is that many people opt to build the control panel out of one sheet of 3/4" wood (plywood or MDF). To mount a joystick from underneath they create a recess with a router and drill a hole through for the joystick shaft. Same for a trackball.

I don't believe the buttons will be enough to hold together two layers of wood. I would think the middle layer might slide around as you move the joystick, and the compression of the button screws would not be enough to keep it from moving. If your buttons aren't long enough for 3/4", you may need to cut a recessed hole for the buttons as well.

But if you want/need to build your panel out of several layers, then I would imagine you need to glue/screw them together. It seems like extra work and one more area for potential misalignment issues, but if you have your measurements correct then it should be fine. The buttons will hold the plexi/lexan in place just fine though.

If you will be using t-molding, make sure you account for this in your total control panel thickness. In other words, if your layers total 3/4" and then you will be adding plexi on top of this, the t-molding will need to be either wider than standard 3/4", or offset. Or plan accordingly and make the total wood thickness 5/8" and then use 1/8" plexi.

BTW - these imperial units really do suck. Fractions are lame.

[Donpatchi]

When you want to do a bottom mounting without the screws beeing vissible i suppose you need an S plate (see pic)?

This would certainly be alot more simple then what i intended to do but i remember reading that this is not as solid as a top mounting.

Well here is the link to what i am refering to http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/mounting_layering.html

[Neverending Project]

That is a nice, clean solution. You would just need to make sure the mounting screws are long enough to get a couple of threads buried in the wood, but short enough that they don't poke through.

Another solution (what I did) is to use T-nuts from the top. Drill a hole for the nut to fit through, and a larger hole just deep enough to recess the flange. Then fill the top with bondo or wood putty. The screws thread in from underneath.

[Franco B]

I did a JLF top mounting guide [here] if it helps.