Building custom stick, few questions

[Rorooze]

Hi team,

Building two custom sticks, was looking at buying an empty box and fitting it out with the electronic stuff myself but have decided to make it up myself. Few questions :O

1) mounting board for the buttons and stick, whats the best way to do this? have a plexi for the buttons and then have a groove in some MDF under the plexi for art work and to mount the stick on? So the screws don't come out of the top of the plexi where the stick is? If anyone else has done this, what sort of MDF thickness do I need to be looking at?

2) I can't find what the maximum or recommended thickness is for snap in buttons (which are 10% cheaper than screw ins, which can go up to like 6-8mm thick plexi), anyone know what it is?

3) Painting MDF, best way to do it?

[moose!]

For mine, as haggard as it is I actually mounted snap in buttons in the thinnest MDF I could find- just because it's a lot easier to work with than plexi. The thinnest MDF at Bunnings is a few mil too fat for snap ins to go in so I just made some bevels with a file on each side where the clips are and they all went in and don't jiggle at all (I think the sheets were 7 mm?).

But if you're mounting buttons in plexi, art underneath and then the stick in MDF under that you kind of want it thick enough that you can be certain you aren't going to break it I guess. you'll need to gouge out 2/3 mils from the top surface for the plate (really easy with craft knife and chisel/flat head) and then a big hole in the middle for the guts (holes around the buttons for the switches of those too). The only trick is making sure the tops of the screws are nice and flat with the surface the plexi/whatever is on top if the stick sits on.

As far as painting MDF- it's not so hard, just patience. But make your you seal it with a primer otherwise it just soaks up all the paint.  Then spray paint coat, sand with fine paper, paint, sand, paint sand however many times until you get bored, just make sure the paint is nice and hard in between each layer. You can go further and gloss it up and polish for a mirror finish as well, it's just more of the same if you can handle being patient enough.

[[8-----D] Toots]

Unless you can get some real thick plexi I wouldnt go with having the buttons supported by the plexi. You probably wanna get some screw in buttons and have the plexi sit right on top of the mdf. The buttons will hold down the plexi so you dont need any screws on top. You want your mdf to be around 15mm- 18mm thick I reckon

Mount the stick something like



or like this but imagine a layer of plexi on top



If your going for a balla as finish follow this guide: http://shoryuken.com/f177/how-paint-mdf-mirror-finish-worklog-191692/

If your not that keen then heres a basic rundown

1) Get some sealer and chuck it on the edges

2) Wait for the sealer to cure then sand it back

3) Do 2 primer coats sanding it to a smooth finish with each coat

4) Start with your top coat

5) Wait for the paint to cure. If you can wait 3 days in between coats great but if not one day should be enough. Wet sand it with some 600 or so grit paper. Try to do 3 top coats with each coat using a higher grit of sandpaper (600>1200>1500)

6) Once you have finished your final coat and sanded it back paint it with a clear lacquer. Done

Doing it this way will give you a decent finish without having to spend much time sanding/polishing

[Rorooze]

Choice. I've drawn something similar to those pics but I've got a 2mm plexi then a 4mm thick MDF, this gives 6mm for some screw ins to lock onto. Under the 4mm thick MDF is a thicker piece of MDF which I'll mount the plate onto.

The 4mm MDF will have a square cut in it where the stick goes so I can screw the stick into a thicker piece of MDF. No screws on top, mean. Will check out that painting guide when I get home