At last, an update! I've been busy with real life stuff (roller skating, working for our roller skating grand imperial poobah, getting my son settled back in school, did I say roller skating?), but finally did some work on the 8" 6 button panel.
Once again, the value of starting with a mock up is proving invaluable. We discovered that the button holes were a bit too small, despite the sketchup drawings being accurate. It turned out that Al had mismeasured the router bit in his cnc. A quick editing, & the problem is fixed. It was cool to see a gold leaf push button mounted.
On my own I'm still working on the rotating monitor design, via google sketchup for the moment. I'm concerned about the weight of the monitor on the support. When I finish some options I'll post them for your feedback.
Also, just as with Doc's Modular Mame, & Weissaupt's Ghost in the Machine, I have to pick a way to attach these individual controller panels to the box, in a way that they stay in position well despite rough handling, but can be quickly removed without tools. Doc used a peg & hole arrangement, Weissaupt used velcro. Both seem to work great, but a roller skating friend of mine offered me these powerful earth magnets, I'm considering trying them to hold down the edge of the panels closest to the player. The farther end I intend to try Doc's peg & hole setup. Of course, I'll have to consider the issues magnets bring with them...(I don't want to wipe a friend's credit cards)