It was time to actually mount the buttons into the lid of the unit itself.
I cut some small strips of the 4mm MDF I had left over to use as packing so I could mount the backing plate for the buttons under the lid and the buttons would protrude the right height above the surface.
Here is the backing plate for the D-pad mounted into the lid, I used two screws per corner just to be sure that it wouldn't rip out if someone whacked the button too hard.
This is what the D-pad backing plate looks like from the top without the D-pad itself inserted in there.
Here is what the underside of the lid looks like after i mounted all of the buttons in there.I'm thinking perhaps I might need put some protectors over those screws so that I don't accidentally store something in the box that is in the way of the screws, thus damaging it.
And viola! Here are all of the buttons mounted, from the top. I'm thinking I might lower the start and select buttons a bit, they look like the protrude just a bit too much for my liking.
Now the next thing for me to do is to either wire up the buttons, or start painting it.
I'm thinking the bottom half of the box will be high gloss black (I'll use some spray paint for that) and the gray parts of lid will be semi-gloss gray.
The sticker bit of the controller (with the writing and stuff on it) I will probably paint with the left over paint I have from my asteroids arcade cabinet, I will use a roller to paint that because it give it the nice grain to it, just like on an actual NES controller.
I'm not sure how to do the writing, if i can't find some decals that match the Nintendo font, I will have to perhaps put some contact over the area with the writing, then cut out and peel back the parts of the contact in the shape of the letters (thus creating a stencil), and paint it that way.
Next post might not be for a while because I'm pretty busy at the moment, but stay tuned and spread the word suckas!
