Find a cardboard box large enough to hold your buttons and joystick. If you purchased a computer monitor for the arcade, just use the box that the screen came in.
By add adding 1 or 2 layers of cardboard to the surface that will hold the buttons and joystick, you can make the playing surface more rigid. We recommend doing this so that your console will hold up when the action gets intense!
Cut out the additional cardboard sheets.
Use a glue gun to attach and layer them to the control panel surface.
Use a marker to trace out where your buttons and joysticks will mount on the box.
For the buttons, use the black plastic ring to trace a pattern for their hole size; for the joystick, remove the stick from its base if you need that to help you trace those.
For best results, we recommend using a drill bit and a cordless drill. You could also use manual cardboard cutting tools but it is hard to achieve a nice clean hole cut.
Use a 1” bit to drill the holes for the buttons and joystick centers.
Drill 1 additional hole in the center to pass the wires through.
Use a screwdriver or the blade of the scissor to cut small holes on the corners of the joystick. The holes should be large enough to let a zip tie go through (or a machine screw).
Try squeezing a few buttons and zip ties in the holes. If they don’t fit it, try rotating them in just like a screw.
Cut an access door at the back to allow easier wiring later on.
Prepping the wires
