Arcade Buttons 2
i now have all the materials to do the mod, im really excited and have just a few questions before i get going;
did you use the same cut guide this time and just changed the height to .775
all the small holes under the deck control piece and the holes between the old buttons is completely gone, did your machinist do this, and how?
and last, how much did you pay to have them do this?
thank you once again, really appreciate it
I used a new and improved cut guide to do my latest ones- just send me an email and I will send it to you. They charged $50 to water jet the cuts. ean at eangolden.com
I filled in the squares with JB weld first and the sanded down everything to a flat surface. That worked out well.
thanks ean, ive send you a mail. i called some different machineshops today and the ones that lasercut charges $100 just to start the machine, and i would have to pay for each mm they cut after that, thats just crazy. gonna do some more research!
I used a mill with a 24.5 mm drill to do mine.
Havents decided exactly how I will cover the holes yet, but I’m thinking a laser cut acrylic plate.
If any one else is interested in doing this mod and wants some plates I will have some spare if I choose this method. You will have to use my template however.
You can see partially what i did in this post here
Underneath is acrylic plastic that also has holes drilled though it, i then used lots of car bog to fill the gaps and sanded it all back perfectly smooth. The plastic behind gives a nice solid backing for the bog so it holds tight, all the edges were sanded back rough so the carbog really grips. i will write up more about this when i write my painting tutorial, i did take a few photos along the way, but it was partly a bit of experimentation as i went 
In the end it turned out great though !
BentoSan, your link just goes to the main page in general discusion? oh, found it, The good things in life
thats awsome!
I used a step drill bit and a drill press to drill my holes too if that helps - In true DIY fashion 
Anyone available to perform these kind of mods?
I am willing to ship mine and pay for this mod. 
(Arcade Buttons)
This mod is a bit of a pain in the butt, to cut, fill and paint everything certainly would not come cheap… for a really good job you would be looking at paying more than the mixer itself costs because of the large amount of man hours that goes into it. A quality paint job is certainly the most expensive part of the operation - that said it all depends how far you want to take it.
For some quality red and metalic black paint cost me $75 Australian alone 
, that without thinners, sandpaper, etch primer, clear cloats (because i already had all of this). Id hate to think what this would have cost me if i was paying someone to do the same level of quality work for me :eek: That said man hours for this type of work is quite expensive where i live(economic boom + lack of trades = expensive workers), about $65 - $85 Australian an hour for this kind of work and there is a lot more hours than most people think that go into doing a high quality job.
BentoSan:
Thanks for the words! I really wouldn’t have a problem soldering and installing the parts. (As long as someone tell me exactly what I need to buy)
However I don’t trust any local shops to perform such job in a brand new equipment. (I actually sold my VCI-100 a few months back ago, and bought another Thursday. Bought the v.1.3 Upgrade Friday)
Is there an existing full template of the case with corresponding cutouts for the Arcade Button mod? Maybe I can have a full new case machined instead. Only issue would be the front layout.. but I hope Ean’s overlays are coming soon.
Installing the arcade buttons themselves is actually quite easy as long as you follow Eans instructions on his video/blog post about this mod. The cheapest way you could do this is at the same time as having the face plate cut you could get a couple pieces of plastic that are a similar colour to the mixer to go behind the faceplate. It wont be seamless, but it certainly will be alot cheaper than getting a pro job done from start to finish. the minute those holes start getting filles up you are looking at painting the faceplate because the filling is quite messy work and will all ways need to sand afterwards, which will most likely damage the finish around the gaps.
Hmmm,
If enough people are keen we could get some acrylic sheets laser cut for > 10 bucks each.
If it was done out of clear acrylic then people could paint it any color they want on the back, using as cheap paint as they want and it would still come out decent with any sanding or prep work other than cleaning it.
The acrylic would sit between the buttons and the top of the VCI rather than inside.
I will start a poll…
Yes!
Midifidler:
What is the status on the sheets? I would love to get my arcade mod done already
Im Going to Mod my vci100se I already have the Sanwa arcade buttons provided by djtechtolls. Im just looking for a cut template, sure I could lay it out myself, but if someone already has the templete, that would be much easier. Does anyone have the link?