Building the Box
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In this section I'm going to talk about building, and finishing the boxes to house your joystick project. There are two types of Joysticks I've put together. One is a clone of the 1 Player Mas Systems "Super Pro Stick", and the other is a 2-Player Joystick built using plans taken from LuSiD's Arcade Flashback. This part is still under construction, however, I do have the measurements for both projects, and you can take a look at the next section for information about which joystick and buttons to buy, in case you're building a box to your own liking. In the meantime, here are the measurements:

For the Two player stick:
These measurements are for 5/8" Wood. I recommend Medium Density Fiberboard. It's pretty smooth, and as a bonus it's really inexpensive too. Unfortunately, you can't get that cut for you at any hardware store, because of OSHA regulations. You can use particle board if you don't have a good saw.

Top 18" x 34"
Sides 14 1/4" x 9",
cut diagonally across at 5 1/2"
Bottom 30" x 13"
Back 30" x 5 1/2"
Front 30" x 3 1/2"

For the Pro Stick Clone, use 3/4" Wood:

Top 14 & 1/2" x 10"
Bottom 14 & 1/2" x 6 & 1/2"
Back 14 & 1/2" x 3 & 3/4"
Front 14 & 1/2" x 3"
Sides 8 & 1/2" x 9", cut at an angle.
The back should be 5",
the front 4" after cutting.

The first step is to assemble the front, back, and bottom. I attach the back first. Use small wood screws, 1 & 1/4" seems to work well for me. What I do is drill a hole where the screw will go, but it should be slightly smaller than the screw threads. This will make driving the screw easier. Be sure to drill very straight! If you are using particle board or MDF, you can easily break the sides! Use a larger drillbit in the same hole, and just drill a fraction of an inch in. Sink the screw just below the surface of the wood. Later you can put a little wood putty on there to conceal the screw. And be sure to clean up your dishes afterwards.. don't be a slob!
If your wood pieces weren't cut exactly perfectly, use a sander over the uneven areas.
And then the sides. To make sure you get the cut at the correct angle, put the uncut piece of wood into place, then use a straight edge to draw a line that would start at the front edge of the back piece of wood, and ends at the front edge of the front piece of wood, like the red line shows. Sink your screws into the front, back, and bottom where the blue arrows show.
Now we're going to prepare the top. In this example I'm using plexiglass over some custom artwork, so here are some tips to avoid cracking it. First, clamp the plexi to the wood that you're going to drill. I use this style of clamp, it's easy to put into place, and reposition. You just squeeze the handles! And they have a great grip!
We're going to drill some small holes to put some Carriage bolts into place to hold the plexi better. I don't recommend using bits that are larger than 1/4". Any larger could crack the glass. Make sure that the tip of the bit you are using is angled, like an arrowhead. If the sides are too flat, it could catch on the glass. Let the drill spin fast, but move through the plexi very slowly, then drill through the wood underneath.
There. Carriage bolts are nice, they don't have a slot in the top of them for a screwdriver, so they won't cut your arm when you slide it across them. Now that you have your holes ready, remove the bolts and glass, then sand the top of the wood and apply some paint.
After the paint is applied we can start getting ready to drill. If you're using pressboard for construction like I do, you're going to find that it takes 3-4 coats of paint to look decent. Usually after the 2nd coat, I sand the painted side again to get rid of bumps. Then paint right over that. Putting plexiglass on the top of artwork always makes it look great. Clamp the glass down to the top again, use a small drill bit, 1/32" or so to drill small pilot holes in the center of where each button will be placed, through the glass and into the wood a little. Then use a 1 & 1/8" boring bit on the plexiglass. Drill at a high speed, but move through the glass very slowly. Try not to jerk away if the bit catches or snags. Soon a small disc of plexi should come loose and spin with the bit. At that point, remove the plexi disc. Don't drill through the wood. Move on to the next hole, repeat until the glass has all holes drilled. Now remove the glass, and use the boring bit to finish the holes in the wood. If you place another piece of wood under this one, it will cut back on "bit blow-out". When all the holes are drilled, put your artwork over the holes, replace the plexi and carriage bolts. Use an X-acto knife to cut the holes out of the artwork.

There is a picture of this joystick completed on my images page. If plexiglass and artwork are out of your price range, for a nice inexpensive finish you can cover the top with Con-tact paper. It's available at Home Depot.



Always under construction!
To the Next Page:

Choosing Your Controls

Questions or comments? Be sure you have read the FAQ. If your question still isn't answered, E-mail me at
CD_Vision (at) hotmail.com.