Main > Main Forum

Control Panel, Materials Other than Wood

<< < (2/2)

nitrogen_widget:
My dad has a sheet metal bender and dead washer/dryers are a great cheap source of metal sheeting for projects.

surface tension:
We use aluminium for our panels, so they are pretty light. Should be fairly inexpensive to have laser/water-cut or punched. You then have plenty of finishing options such as anodising, powder-coating or painting.

Vigo:
I'd think in most cases, if you are switching to another material to save on shipping, you would still be paying the cost in the bump in material cost price. (unless you had a source for used materials, like nitrogen mentioned used washer/dryers for sheet metal).

I would personally focus on using a lighter wood. Opt for plywood instead of MDF, throttle down to 1/2 thick instead of 3/4ths.

And maybe more details on what kind of control panel might help, too. Is this for something like a fight stick? If so, you can use a plastic project box as the base enclosure of the control panel. Then a sheet of hardboard over it. That is cheap and light.

Marinewolfohbc:
Thanks for all the input guys.  Been helpful.

As to the type of panel -- two player, 6-8 buttons a piece with a track ball in the middle, little large because I'm going to fit the computer inside of the control panel so it can be hooked directly to a TV. :)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page

Go to full version