Bacteria's N64/GBA combined portable - Nintendo 64 Advance

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:40 am

Anyway, back on topic:

Spent a lot of today out, so didn't get as much done as I wanted to, however I did manage to do the "A", "B" and down "C" button. I thought I would include a pic so far for your delectation. Compare the naff looking hole outlines against the finished holes:

The "A" and "B" buttons are larger than the other ones by about 1mm diameter. As these buttons are attached to my home made buttons, I can't use the buttons on this picture, however I can confirm that all button so far fit snugly, but loosely (don't stick in holes). One benefit I discovered from using plastic like this is that you can easily align the buttons as you want them - for those of you who have opened controllers up, you know that buttons usually have "legs" which correspond to cutouts in the plastic holders which hold the button in place, to stop the button from turning around through use. If I need to, I can do the same by cutting a tiny groove in the underside of the plastic sheet. I doubt I will need to do this as the home made buttons are in place by the foam pads and the buttons going onto the tact switches will be kept in place by either foam pads or hot glue (I need to experiment as to which is best).

Today I bought some white spray paint, I decided that black looks nice but shows up any imperfections (inc fingerprints) whereas white is far more tolerant to imperfections. Given that some of the case (edges) will be spray painted wood, I thought white paint best. I intend to use a piece of spare plastic from my sheet to spray paint on and see if the paint sticks fine or if it prefers to peel or crack; if it does, I may have to use some spray-on glue and stick some card lightly on the back (won't look so good) or an A4 sticky label (again not so good). By definition I can't use a primer for the plastic as it is the undercoat which will show through, not subsequent coats (reverse painted sheet)...

Tomorrow I intend to complete the button holes (the remaining 3 "C" buttons) and then tackle the joystick and speaker holes, and of course the D-pad part.

so far.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:46 am

All the button holes for Start, Select, Slo-mo, GBA Menu, A, B, C up, C down, C left, C right are all done now.

Time to do the D-pad part now, better to do it now rather than "looking forward to doing it later"

The technique I will be using is to stick the front of the NES controller to the plastic sheet with paper masking tape. I can then drill out the space between the NES D-pad cross. Job done. Roughly speaking, the thickness of the NES controller is about 2mm, so this means that my D-pad cross, when mounted, should be exactly the same height through my plastic sheet as though the NES controller itself.

It's going to be nice when the project is done to start playing my portable, but at the same time it will be a bit sad, as I am getting a lot of enjoyment making this project.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:21 am

I have started with the hole, cut the sides and bottom with the sideways cutter, then used the pointed engravers tool to get the corners. When I have finished this, I will use the file to straighten the sides and square the corners as good as I can.

This proceedure is quicker than making the button holes, but has more scope for making errors as you are effectively making four series of holes with corners. As before, I only have one chance to do this right. If I am more than 1mm out overall (top to bottom or sides) the hole may be too big or logsided; so I have to be rather careful.

I will post another pic when I have finished cutting out the cross area, and another one after the filing, to show the finished work.

I am hoping to get all the holes cut and finished today, I have a few hours available, however it all depends on how I feel later on.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:24 am

As promised, the pics:

All four pieces cut out:

Smoothed edges with the file (just the right sized file, 6mm, square). I then used an eraser to rub out the unsightly felt pen marks:

Finshed. Nice and smooth, D-pad has freedom and movement as it should have, hole is the right size, and straight, in line with the case:

twilightprincess · Post by **twilightprincess** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:14 am

Wow incredible. Plexi glass sweet sweet plexi glass.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:15 am

Yes, it is great stuff to work with. I found this material by accident, pleased I did, it is great stuff to work with!

Time to do the hole for the joystick. I want the hole to fit the top of the joystick, but tightly. This will give a nice finish, and when I reinforce the bond with hot glue (inside the case) it will be hard to remove, and sturdy.

Step 1: I used my computer to print out a perfect circle, 33.5mm diameter, which is the diameter of the joystick.

I then cut it out with a craft knife, and removed most of the surround, sticking it where I intend to put the joystick on my case. I just need to keep inside the circle, as close to the paper as I can without cutting it, so I have my perfect size:

Step 2: Drill out the dead area, leaving a couple of millimetres, so I can shave the remainder and get a nice smooth cutout:

Step 3: Careful cutting...

Step 4: Finished.

It was quite difficult finishing this, keeping it the right size and proportion, when shaving a tiny shave here, and a tiny shave there.

I didn't have to hold the joystick as it is being entirely held by the hole, however I wanted to show the pic with the joystick stick in its upright position. To release the joystick, I had to "pop" it out. I got it right therefore!!

Same proceedure for the speaker holes next...

PeglegJimmy · Post by **PeglegJimmy** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:42 am

You sure are great with plexi :O This sure is coming along great, hope to see it done soon.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:32 am

Thanks for the compliment.

Got the speakers cut out now.

Two pics to show now - all the holes are cut out now, I need to trim off the edges now to make the case top the right size. I feel rather worn out now, a bit "boggled eyed", so probably won't do more work today on the project.

Pic showing all the holes completed:

And a pic showing the speaker grills in place. The grills will be secured behind the sheet (after spray painting it). I will spray paint the grills white too, to make it look uniform.

I haven't decided the colour of the back of the case, when I make it; I may well keep to white, but could go for a grey instead, for contrast.

After trimming off the edges (the outer outline in pic), I will have to mask the screen area, so it doesn't get covered with spray paint.

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:35 am

Yes, you sure are handy with those tools

Plexiglass isn't as easy to work with as well, so good job! Keep it up!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 11:50 am

sammy - thanks for the kind comments.

It is the first time I have worked with this material, and frankly, I didn't have much confidence that I would have succeeded with it at the start, yet I have managed to make it something to be proud of. Once I started a test drill, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw and could see the potential. Fortunately, I managed to do the work without making any mistakes, and I am very happy with this so far.

2mm of this plastic provides some resistance when dremeling; you have to be careful and make small shaves at a time, but if you do, it is a good material to use. You also need to have your dremel at about 15,000 RPM. It just takes a long time to work with it - my estimate of 9-10 hours for this sheet proved about right, by the time I have done the outer areas it will be about 10-11 hours in total. Worth the effort though.

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:58 pm

I dont know why I have failed to tell you this untill now, but I haver this awesome drill bit the cuts perfect circles! And to think...

Its Shaped Like this:

Code: Select all

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but each line is a circle, with like, a knotch down the side, which makes it shave the plastic.

SS

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:11 am

Looks useful! What is is called, make, website please? Any pic?

I might be able to get one on e-bay!

superdeformed · Post by **superdeformed** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:18 am

I'm pretty sure what ShockSlayer is referring to is a unibit. You can probably find one at a local hardware store. A reamer is also very good for making clean holes, but they're generally intended for thin materials and 2mm is probably a bit too thick to get a straight hole.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:25 am

Looked them up; quite expensive. Very interesting, thanks for the suggestion, however I feel the accuracy with the process I used would be hard to replicate with these tools, in terms of hole positioning; they also seem designed for thin materials, the 2mm perspex may well be too thick.

Thanks for the thought, though.

I have the morning free tomorrow, so I hope to finish cutting off the sides of the case front and get them nice. Once I have done this, I can test the spray paint to see if it is suitable for the plastic; and if it is, if I can hot-glue on top of that (reversed) surface and still have a great finish.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:30 am

Made a quick start (more work on it tomorrow).

Step 1: Use a craft knife and score along the line a few times, so you know the straight edge. Used my diamond sideways cutter tool to only leave about 2-3mm from the straight edge to trim off.

Step 2: Break off the melted bits to leave a better edge to work with. The plastic tends to melt with the sideways cutter by the friction.

Step 3: Started to trim the line down to the edge with my drill bit (as I did with the circles). This is tricky and needs a very steady hand. One slip and you have a problem! I have a little more to shave from part of the straight bit to get it nice and straight.

To achieve a really smooth final line, I will use a very fine file, very gently. So far, I have finished about 2cm out of 170cm to cut in this way...could take a while...

I know this is like using a mallet to crack a walnut, but it is the end result which is the important factor, and so far, this approach has given great results. Let's hope I don't mess it up now...

Additional comment - this isn't worth posting as a new post, so edited the last one to include this:

Progress of cutting a straight line with a circular drill tool is going quite fast, and my line is perfect (so far). The easy method for doing this work is to put the plastic sheet on a desk, pertruding by a couple of centimetres, (if you are right handed) left hand holding the plastic in place and thumb providing a pivot for your right hand, this ensures you can have good accuracy and control. Another technique is to use your left hand (in the same position) to move your right hand, so all your right hand is doing is to gently move the drill bit. I find holding the dremel in my right hand, as low to the base as possible and like a pencil, firmly, is best. I am managing to slice away about 2cm of plastic at a time, so it shouldn't take too much time to complete this task. Gently slicing away the last 1/4 mm takes the longest time, very gentle cutting.

When I have finished the sheet cutting, I will post a pic of course.

Extra update: Just finished one of the longer sides (bottom); took about 1 hour 45 mins to do (although I am getting faster now). Onto side 2!