Repos / hi.imnhan.com / 0e0b4dd5fd
commit 0e0b4dd5fd14105c0df0d0086bff97e5d89d2ea5
Author: nhanb <nhan@nerdyweekly.com>
Date: Tue Dec 8 16:19:47 2015 +0700
fightstick part 1
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+Title: My first DIY fightstick - Part 1
+Date: 2015-12-08 12:50
+
+Ever since I started practicing Street Fighter seriously (albeit with modest results), I've
+always wanted to make myself a custom fightstick. Now that I'm not working full-time for anyone,
+there's no better time to Just Do It.
+
+If you've done any research on DIY fightsticks, you'll know that the 2 best places to find guides
+are [Slagcoin][slagcoin] and [Shoryuken Tech Talk][tech-talk]. I decided to follow the [basic
+design][basic-design] on Slagcoin:
+
+
+
+## Materials and tools
+
+If you live in Hồ Chí Minh City like me, you can probably get everything you need from shops on
+Bạch Đằng Street. The only hard part for me was convincing a small wood shop to sell MDF panels cut
+to my specifications in small quantity:
+
+- 4 pieces x 30cm x 20cm x 1cm *
+- 2 pieces x 20cm x 4cm x 2cm
+- 2 pieces x 20cm x 7cm x 2cm
+- 1 piece x 26cm x 4cm x 2cm
+- 4 pieces x 34cm x 7cm x 2cm *
+
+All that set me back 120,000 VND. The cost was mostly for cutting labor instead of actual material.
+The items with asterisks (\*) are those I bought in abundance to make room for drilling errors.
+
+
+
+The top panel would be layered with 1 MDF and 2 plexiglass pieces:
+
+
+
+The bottom would simply be 1 MDF and 1 plexiglass so I could also insert bottom artwork.
+
+Since I had zero woodworking experience, I joined the MDF pieces with simple butt joints and good
+old wood glue. You'll notice that there's a significant gap on one corner - turns out the shop
+wasn't too accurate with their cutting. It's not shown here but eventually I had to use a saw
+a longer MDF piece to replace it.
+
+
+
+I already had a hand drill laying around so all it took was buying a couple of hole saws - 24mm and
+30mm in diameter respectively. The bigger one was used for drilling main button holes while the
+other was for joystick hole and smaller front side buttons.
+
+
+
+**Don't buy** hole saws like the one below - you will not be able to drill through thick panels
+(like the 20mm thick one I bought):
+
+
+
+As for the actual parts, I ordered the joystick and buttons from [Akishop][akishop]. It ships from Japan so
+the shipping cost to Vietnam is much more reasonable than if I buy from the US. I also bought a
+[Zero Delay PCB kit][zd] from ebay. This one even offers free shipping since it's from China. This kit
+offers easy solder-free wires too so it saved me from a lot of trouble (I still can't find where to
+quick-disconnect terminals to this date). I connected everything to my PC to test if things work as
+expected:
+
+
+
+## Actually making it
+
+I drilled holes in the front side: first using the 30mm bit to drill halfway, then went all the way
+with the 24mm bit. This allows a small button to be placed deep into the case, avoiding
+accidentally button presses.
+
+
+
+Then I glued the case body together. I didn't have big clamps laying around so I had to make do with
+an elastic string. It worked terribly though.
+
+
+
+Note that the bottom panel was just there to keep the whole thing in shape. I took it out later:
+
+
+
+See the gap in the top left corner? That's the gap I was talking about earlier. Good thing I had a
+spare piece laying around, so I sawed it to the correct length to use as a replacement:
+
+
+
+Now everything fitted together but there was some excess on one long side. Much sanding awaits!
+
+
+
+Initial sanding effort with 140 grit sandpaper:
+
+
+
+By the way, I recommend using a sanding block. It helps you apply more pressure evenly. I simply
+wrapped my sandpaper around a spare piece of MDF:
+
+
+
+Now on to the inner sides. These would support the top and bottom panels. I used a long piece of
+scrap plexiglass to apply pressure instead of a clamp. This time I put one 10mm-thick wood panel
+and one 3mm-thick plexiglass panel under it to make sure the inner supports are glued at the
+correct position.
+
+
+
+With all 3 inner sides glued:
+
+
+
+Now you must be wondering why I had 2 inner pieces on the left side. I originally wanted to save
+some space and weight by sawing those into shorter support bits instead of long whole pieces that
+covered the full length. After sawing the first piece I decided that it wasn't worth the effort
+anyway so... there you have it.
+
+Here comes the next challenge: putting paint on the MDF. There is an [extremely elaborate
+method][paint-guide] explained on Shoryuken Tech Talk that helps you achieve a mirror-like glossy
+finish. Of course I don't have the tools and patience to follow all that, but I followed the first
+few steps (cover edges with non-absorbent material, sand and spray paint multiple times) to achieve
+an acceptably smooth finish.
+
+Here's the first step: cover edges with non-absorbent material. The tutorial suggested using
+spackling, which I have no idea how to obtain it from here. I settled with something we call
+"matic" (mastic, perhaps?) which my friends said was to be used for the same purpose. The thing was
+yellow-ish and much more runny than spackling. It was also difficult as hell to work with: the
+moment it's spread on the MDF edge, it starts drying, at which point you can't touch it again
+unless you want an ugly grungy finish (is that even a word?):
+
+
+
+I waited for the yellow thing to dry, then sanded it again. After a first few coats with glossy
+black spray paint, things don't look too sexy:
+
+
+
+It does get better with sanding (1200 grit) and more coats though. But then I made the most stupid
+decision: glueing the top panel on before drilling:
+
+
+
+Now why was this bad? Because now I would be forced to drill top panel holes *with* the whole body
+attached, which will expose the whole thing to sawdust, which was generally PITA to clean up - the
+top panel made it a closed shape with corners and spaces all over the place.
+
+As if that wasn't enough, I did paint it too. The paint layer would later make disgusting drill
+holes:
+
+
+
+But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's how the case looked after a few more black coats and one
+clear coat (also put buttons in there to see how they fit):
+
+
+
+I did drill an extra button hole because I realized I'd need the "Playstation" button too if I want
+to use a PS4 controller PCB later (which I plan to do). Unfortunately I only ordered 2 small
+buttons from Akishop so I had to use a green Chinese button I had laying around.
+
+Now here comes the hard part: drilling the top panel. As mentioned earlier, the top panel would be
+3-layer:
+
+
+
+I placed all 3 pieces onto the case, but with the 4mm plexiglass on top (in the plan it's supposed
+to be in the middle - I'll explain later). Then I printed the Blast City button layout found on
+Slagcoin and taped it onto the whole thing:
+
+
+
+Notice the extra two holes I drew above and below the joystick hole. Those are for screw holes for
+mounting the joystick. This is why I put the 4mm piece on top: I was going to drill these two holes
+on the 4mm piece only to leave room for screw heads. This way I didn't need to "route" the extra 2
+holes on my MDF piece like the original plan (I was afraid the 10mm MDF thickness was already too
+thin).
+
+After drilling the necessary holes, I removed the plexiglass pieces and drilled the aformentioned 2
+joystick mounting holes into to MDF, then I placed the joystick mounting plate onto the surface to
+plot the rectangular part that needed to be cut off:
+
+
+
+Since I don't have any power tool, I used my handy hand drill with the circular hole saw to
+gradually drill out the shape:
+
+
+
+After much sanding and cleaning:
+
+
+
+See the glorious tears? That's what premature painting does to you. Friends don't let friends paint
+prematurely!
+
+Anyway, I also drilled 3 hole on the bottom to install the bottom pieces (1 MDF & 1 plexiglass). I
+also printed a quick picture as a placeholder artwork to see how it would look:
+
+
+
+As I was excited to finish the putting the top panel together, I hit a wall: because I couldn't
+possible drill perfectly perpendicular screw holes, they could not property attach:
+
+
+
+Also, thanks to the switching positions between the two plexiglass pieces, the button holes didn't
+align anymore. I had to waste a buttload of time sanding the lower piece's holes to make them
+bigger.
+
+But that's not even the worst issue: because the screw holes were not aligned, once I screwed all
+four corners, the top plexiglass piece flexed, creating a blatantly noticeable gap:
+
+
+
+## Um... that's it (for now).
+
+That's all of my progress so far. I'm visiting my local Fablab, which is advertised to have CNC
+machines and laser cutters so I'll probably have a chance to produce more accurate panels. Hell, I
+may even redo the whole thing using machine-cut pieces for absolute accuracy and save myself from a
+world of pain.
+
+I took a lot of photos as I go, so if you want to see more photos of my progress, just check out my
+[flickr album][flickr].
+
+Till next time!
+
+[akishop]: https://www.akishop.jp/
+[zd]: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Zero-Delay-USB-Encoder-to-PC-Joystick-For-Arcade-DIY-KIT-Sanwa-Parts-MAME-/191558265304?hash=item2c99c329d8#shpCntId
+[slagcoin]: http://www.slagcoin.com/
+[tech-talk]: http://forums.shoryuken.com/categories/tech-talk
+[basic-design]: http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/example2.html
+[paint-guide]: http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/67501/how-to-paint-mdf-to-a-mirror-finish-worklog
+[flickr]: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nhanb/albums/72157661059385592