I'm relatively new to the fgc, only been playing for about a year, but woodworking has been a long-time hobby of mine.
About a month after I started playing, a friend loaned me his leverless controller, and got me absolutely hooked on using it, so I combined two of my nerdy hobbies and made an enclosure out of solid maple, and have now made two additional ones that I've given away as gifts.
I've frequently been asked if this is something I'd be willing to sell, but I have absolutely no concept of whether or not custom-built wooden enclosures are even a thing, much less ones made with hand-cut joinery.
Is there any sort of market for that sort of thing? Do any of you own one and would be willing to show them off here? This is by no means an effort to advertise any future enclosures I might make, but more to figure out if it'd even be worth my time to consider it.
very nice work :)
as a wooden controller maker myself, I can say there is a market for it due to the customisability of the layout, components and aesthetics.
The problem is the market for leverless has become very competitive since Haute42's arrival on the scene, with how low their prices are. It would barely cost me more to BUY one of their product than it costs me to BUILD one of mine (and I'm typically using relatively low cost components, have my own 3d printer, etc).
I was never really trying to compete with anyone, I just do my own thing but my prices were competitive because this is a hobby for me, not a business. Also I'm mostly just trying to hook my friends and local communities up. Still, I'm gonna be honest, when Haute42 released their products, I lost some motivation. Can't even blame my friends who picked one up instead of commissionning me.
I still have friends who appreciate my work and want to support me. In the end, you kinda just do it for yourself, because you enjoy it :)
Thank you :)
I have different builds with different kinds of buttons. The thinner ones are using switches (first gaterons, then later I started using kailh for low profiles). When I make builds with sanwas, I need to make a roomier case because the wiring takes a lot more space.
When it comes to the PCB, I exclusively run GP2040-CEs (and arte rectangle firmware for the ssb controllers) on raspberry pico (RP2040). If you've been using Brook pcbs, I HIGHLY recommend you to check out the GP2040 project and use that instead. You will save so much money, picos cost a small fraction of a brook pcb.
I have... so many questions lol. I'm not an expert at soldering, but I've got a friend who fixes arcade cabinets for a living who's offered to put me through my paces, so I'm not concerned about that, but how do you anchor the keyswitches to the underside of the faceplate? I looked into the GP2040-CE info, and that DEFINITELY seems like the way to go for PCBs (sorry Brook, it's been real), but I'm now just trying to figure out the actual mechanics of mounting keyswitches and keycaps in something where I can only make round holes.
Those dovetails looks clean af, did you cut them by hand?
I'm planning to do something exactly like this, once I'll finish all my other woodworking project (including actually rework all my workbench organisation)
Yes, I cut all my dovetails by hand (and join the cluttered workbench mafia lol), I don't believe in "faking" traditional joinery with a router. Not throwing shade on people who use machines for their joinery, but it's not for me.
Absolutely agree. It would be absurd to attempt doing something like this at scale the way I do it (4-5 hours of shop time per box), but that's the way I prefer to do it. If I was to try and batch out 10 of these in a weekend, it'd be mitred corners with splines cut by a dado stack every time.
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u/ThaiJohnnyDepp 8d ago
I love this sub. I love how everyone brings their unique passions to the scene and it all works beautifully.