My latest custom.

WHO IS YOUR MAIN IN SF4?! OMG I DON'T KNOW! It's freaking me out! =P That stick looks so slick, nice job man.

Hey Broken, think you'd be willing to post some tips for using a CnC router to make the stick cases? I'm probably going to get access to one this summer for a project (involving building arcade sticks =P), and was wondering if you can use wood in a CnC router, how hard it is to engrave things, which software is the best to set up the router, etc. Especially if you use one day to day, it seems like you'd have a lot of tips that would help me.
 
I'll help in any way I can, fella.
You can use wood, but you usually have to cut it fairly fast to prevent it from burning. I can't remember whether you're supposed to use single or multi-fluted bits as I don't cut very much wood.
Because wood often comes with slight discrepancies in the thickness and flatness of it it can be a pain to engrave as you can sometimes go to shallow in some sections and too deep in others, making lines bolder in places.
I often use CorelDRAW to do all the vector artwork in and import it through to artpath, which is the software that runs the router. It's a fairly niche program and you need a dongle to run it, but you can probably find a less than legit version if you look hard enough.
I know there's plug-ins for CorelDRAW that let you run a vinyl plotter, so it's a possibility that someone has done the same for a router. I'll see what I can dredge up.

I do have all my original cutpaths in .AI format if you're needing pointers on how to set-up the box design.
 
Meh, I'm thinking of doing a pretty standard wooden box design.

The main thing that it would be is that I was going to make a wood box, use CnC to drill the dowel holes exactly the same, every time, and perfectly aligned. Something cool I think, would be to engrave our "club logo" on the backside of the box. I'm not just making one, although I might run a few "special designs" for myself, and see if I can add any engraving to make them more special.

What do you think about using acrylic for the entire box? Is it cheaper than wood? Is it easy to get and manipulate into a box? How do you fasten them together? IMO, I'm mainly working with wood, and there doesn't seem to be much info on acrylic. Maybe I should take a second look at slagcoin...
 
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