Another VCI Arcade completed without going to the machine shop!
Hi all,
Just thought i’d share my weekends work with you all!
It started like this …
Then…
And now…
Get in!!!
congrats man! looks seameless!
cheeeers, i was a bit gutted about not being able to get black knobs and faders but i actually think it looks ok with the silver ones still.
Its not seamless as filing the holes with a metal file doesnt get you the neat finish a machine shop gets but its all hidden anyway with the overlay but the buttons are still in tight and snug 
all hail the overlay 
no but seriously, u´ve done it with a file…so how long did filed to get a decent hole?
Took about 1.5hrs to get all 8 holes done
sweet… i guess it has been 1.5hrs full of blood sweat and tears not destroying the plate
The plate stands upto it really well its not as weak as some people made out. With a bigger file i could have done it loads quicker but the file i used was only about 1cm in diameter at its max.
I think its well worth while doing it this way especially after reading that thread on that machine shop that completely fooked the plate for them … baaarstewards grrrr!
So you took the plate off, drew the circles on the plate and started to file away?
I am having trouble finding a place to do it so this seems like a good solution thanks for posting it.
Yup pretty much!
basically i placed the overlay on (not stuck) and drew round the arcade button holes.
Then i dispamntled it all and filed away at the housing until each button fitted in the hole. If you do do it whatever you do don’t file all the way to the hole you have drawn as the arcade overlay is designed to fit over the the button and not under.
As the original guy said sho posted about this , try and get a metal file that is as close as to the size of teh rectangle button holes. I think the bigger the file the quicker you will complete it.
One other tip … long slowe strokes seem to be better then short fast ones… .oooowww eeeeer
haha sweet man 
this is awesome 
guess sometime this week im going to get busy filing away hehe
get on it when your doing it just keep checking the hols with one of the buttons so that you get a nice snug fit, they should clip in.
will do this looks like fun so yeah hehe should be entertaining to see how it all goes along
i finished mine last week and just finished installing new leds. Its not as hard as you think. it took me an hour or so to do all 8 of mine. I had a bigger file though.
When i was done though the feeling of relief and excitement was kind of overwhelming haha. Nothing beats the satisfaction of doing it your self.
what leds have you instaled ? new colours or fixing broken ones?
swapped out all the green with white and all the yellow with blue. It was alot easier then expected. took me about an hour to do all of them.
I’m about a month away from buying my VCI and I think this post has encouraged me to go at it with a dremel… machine shop can rip it to shreds and hey, its all about saving the dough.
Awesome job man! Get some 300 sand paper and nobody will ever know you made it all escape-from-alcatraz-style!
G.
what i did was use a drill with a large drill bit first to open up most of the hole, then i used a $5 file and scraped away for bout an hour. Seriously, fuck paying shitloads of money when you can do it all at home. I didnt even use resistor thingys between the arcade buttons and the motherboard and i’ve had no trouble in the year i’ve had my VCI.
Piece of cake!
Dig it. You might get some ground-looping, and a fierce hum if you don’t put those diodes in there…let alone pick up buzzing and whatnot from your cell phone and other stuff in the booth too!
G.