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Step 30Getting the Plastic and Creating Button Holes
What you need:
A Dremel with a plastic cutting bit
Tape (Duck Tape works great)
Acrylic pieces for your case (See next paragraph)
A good set of files. Get a square one, too, those are great for the right angles in the D-Pad cross.
GETTING THE PLASTIC
To make this type of case, you first have to measure all your parts to find out the width and height of them. Then, stack all them and find the depth. You can then have a local plastics company cut out the pieces for you. For me, the width of the front and back panels was 8.5" x 6", the top and bottom panels were 8.5" x 2", and the left and right panels were 5 3/4" x 2". That gives a portable with the approximate dimensions of 8.5"x6"x2.5". It could have been thinner, but the plastics company would only cut them to 2" because they were "afraid of cutting their fingers". Oh well. 2" is still very comfortable to hold. One note about the plastic. I found that 1/8" was best. 1/16" was too thin and flimsy and 1/4" was way too thick to work with. For those of you not using the English System (I.E. the lucky people), 3mm acrylic is a good thickness.
You could also order plastic online and cut it yourself. Here is a good website that sells styrene (A fancy name for acrylic which is a fancy name for plastic. Don't you feel educated now?).
Back on track. The first picture shows the pieces proudly displayed on my bedroom carpet. The reason they're blue is because they came with a protective sheet on them so they wouldn't be scratched. As you can see, I already took them off of the left and right panels and one of the top/bottom panels. :)
MAKING THE D-PAD HOLE
So you have your plastic, but now what? Here comes the scary part - making the D-Pad hole. You may have noticed that I have three front and back pieces. Good work, Sherlock. I ordered an extra in case I messed up. ;)
USE THE RIGHT DREMEL BIT!
Get out your trusty Dremel and a plastic cutting bit. I didn't want to go buy a new bit, so I used what came with my Dremel. As you can see in the last picture, it didn't come out so well. Next time I'll buy the proper bit.
Take your NES controller case and tape it where you want the D-Pad to be. We are going to use the controller's original hole as a template for ours. (Picture 2)
RAISE THE PLASTIC
Prop up the plastic on something so that when you go through the plastic, you don't cut whatever is underneath the plastic. I used some school textbooks. (Finally, a use for those!) I used another to hold the plastic down. See picture three.
Turn your Dremel on to the speed appropriate for your plastic-cutting bit. Slowly lower it onto the middle of the template, and drill all the way through, so you create a "starting hole". It helps if you insert the bit at an angle.
CUT AROUND THE TEMPLATE
Carefully start cutting around the inside of the D-Pad template. Don't go all the way to the edge, go just inside it. We will file it down later.
FILE IT OUT
Continue until you get all the way around the template and you cut out the rough shape. Now, take the file and sand down the rough spots. Make the acrylic flush with the template. Try to get it the exact same size.
TEST THE FIT
Once you are satisfied with the hole, take off your template and test the fit of the D-Pad cross. If it fits, great! If it won't go in, have another go with the file. If it's too loose, you might have to re-do it on the extra piece of acrylic. Once you get the D-Pad to fit correctly, you should cut out the A/B and Start/Select buttons.
MAKE THE OTHER BUTTON HOLES
To cut the holes for the other buttons, you should take the controller board you build earlier and hold it in place under the acrylic. Just like the D-Pad, put it where you want the buttons to be.
Take a Sharpie and make the center of the tact switches. Take a drill bit just BARELY larger that your A/B buttons and drill the holes. I don't have a picture of this, sorry.
I didn't have a large enough drill bit, so I had to improvise. I drilled a hole with the biggest bit I had, then used the aluminum-oxide grinding stone that came with me Dremel (the circular orange bit that I used to diffuse my LEDs) and cut the holes with those. Unfortunately, I was not careful enough and make a few cosmetic mistakes, like some scratches on the case. Not a big deal, but you need to be careful of that stuff.
A Dremel with a plastic cutting bit
Tape (Duck Tape works great)
Acrylic pieces for your case (See next paragraph)
A good set of files. Get a square one, too, those are great for the right angles in the D-Pad cross.
GETTING THE PLASTIC
To make this type of case, you first have to measure all your parts to find out the width and height of them. Then, stack all them and find the depth. You can then have a local plastics company cut out the pieces for you. For me, the width of the front and back panels was 8.5" x 6", the top and bottom panels were 8.5" x 2", and the left and right panels were 5 3/4" x 2". That gives a portable with the approximate dimensions of 8.5"x6"x2.5". It could have been thinner, but the plastics company would only cut them to 2" because they were "afraid of cutting their fingers". Oh well. 2" is still very comfortable to hold. One note about the plastic. I found that 1/8" was best. 1/16" was too thin and flimsy and 1/4" was way too thick to work with. For those of you not using the English System (I.E. the lucky people), 3mm acrylic is a good thickness.
You could also order plastic online and cut it yourself. Here is a good website that sells styrene (A fancy name for acrylic which is a fancy name for plastic. Don't you feel educated now?).
Back on track. The first picture shows the pieces proudly displayed on my bedroom carpet. The reason they're blue is because they came with a protective sheet on them so they wouldn't be scratched. As you can see, I already took them off of the left and right panels and one of the top/bottom panels. :)
MAKING THE D-PAD HOLE
So you have your plastic, but now what? Here comes the scary part - making the D-Pad hole. You may have noticed that I have three front and back pieces. Good work, Sherlock. I ordered an extra in case I messed up. ;)
USE THE RIGHT DREMEL BIT!
Get out your trusty Dremel and a plastic cutting bit. I didn't want to go buy a new bit, so I used what came with my Dremel. As you can see in the last picture, it didn't come out so well. Next time I'll buy the proper bit.
Take your NES controller case and tape it where you want the D-Pad to be. We are going to use the controller's original hole as a template for ours. (Picture 2)
RAISE THE PLASTIC
Prop up the plastic on something so that when you go through the plastic, you don't cut whatever is underneath the plastic. I used some school textbooks. (Finally, a use for those!) I used another to hold the plastic down. See picture three.
Turn your Dremel on to the speed appropriate for your plastic-cutting bit. Slowly lower it onto the middle of the template, and drill all the way through, so you create a "starting hole". It helps if you insert the bit at an angle.
CUT AROUND THE TEMPLATE
Carefully start cutting around the inside of the D-Pad template. Don't go all the way to the edge, go just inside it. We will file it down later.
FILE IT OUT
Continue until you get all the way around the template and you cut out the rough shape. Now, take the file and sand down the rough spots. Make the acrylic flush with the template. Try to get it the exact same size.
TEST THE FIT
Once you are satisfied with the hole, take off your template and test the fit of the D-Pad cross. If it fits, great! If it won't go in, have another go with the file. If it's too loose, you might have to re-do it on the extra piece of acrylic. Once you get the D-Pad to fit correctly, you should cut out the A/B and Start/Select buttons.
MAKE THE OTHER BUTTON HOLES
To cut the holes for the other buttons, you should take the controller board you build earlier and hold it in place under the acrylic. Just like the D-Pad, put it where you want the buttons to be.
Take a Sharpie and make the center of the tact switches. Take a drill bit just BARELY larger that your A/B buttons and drill the holes. I don't have a picture of this, sorry.
I didn't have a large enough drill bit, so I had to improvise. I drilled a hole with the biggest bit I had, then used the aluminum-oxide grinding stone that came with me Dremel (the circular orange bit that I used to diffuse my LEDs) and cut the holes with those. Unfortunately, I was not careful enough and make a few cosmetic mistakes, like some scratches on the case. Not a big deal, but you need to be careful of that stuff.
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Jul 10, 2010. 8:01 PMWeaponMaker96
says:
I went to the website but it said that the minimum is 20 bucks and i want to order the 8 white pieces 12X12 .125 would they let me buy it? And where can i get acrylic glue?
Reply
Jul 13, 2010. 1:41 PMWeaponMaker96
says:
Nevermind i will use the radioshack project boxes and shorten the height by an inch or two...
Reply
Feb 6, 2009. 11:10 AMnevermind1534
says:
Styrene sheets are pretty much unexpanded styrofoam. Not quite the same as acrylic.
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