Cutting and Wiring

One joystick and 3 buttons on each side was to be the plan. I cut the holes in the MDF first, and then clamped the acrylic on to make the other holes. Simple, really... since they all use a 1 1/8-inch hole. Pre-drill a pilot hole, and then do the real thing. I was a little worried about how difficult cutting in to the acrylic would be, but it ended up being very easy material to work with. I used some custom finishing bolts from the hardware store, so the top of the panel would keep looking very professional.

I don't have the finished artwork to be printed (which is being custom designed by my lovely wife), so I am leaving the blue protective sheeting on the back side of the acrylic sheets for now. Finally, I made the wiring connections from the controls to the keyboard encoder, and that was it. I cut holes and wired the additional buttons for players, coin, game selection, exit, and admin functions at various locations on the cabinet. Nearly finished!

And yes, as far as I know the best cutting table to use for your control panel is a priority USPS box which had previously contained your shipped controls.