even for arcade cabinets . Been asking for some one to build me one and they want from $600 up to $1000 . they must be using agarwood
I feel like there was a time where we didn't make much of an issue of how much it cost build an arcade cabinet. In general it was actively encouraged to find budget friendly ways to accomplish building an emulator cabinet. Things have gotten much better over time.
We should call a spade a spade though. Put a yellow caution sign out front and tell folks that while you can do this inexpensively, it is not cheap.
I've bought a router, table saw, was gifted a circular saw. I also purchased $50 in router bits, $35 and $25 saw blades. Hole saws, fostner bits. Even if you have access to that, you still have to buy wood. +2 sheets of wood. Even more for the few false starts I had. Lots of wood. Glue, screw, wood filler, paint. At this point, $1000 is starting to look generous. We haven't started talking about the tool kit you'll build for the electronics.
That is why I think the fight stick is the best first project. A person will learn a lot of lessons there. They can reuse the parts and the experience on their bigger projects.