Need wire and a box..

I'm making a button box for some of the racing simulations I run.. The only problem is that the project boxes I've found online are too small.

I need one measuring eh.. 10"x6"x2/12" can be slightly larger in any dimension.

I'm also having trouble coming up with a way to wire some of the buttons. the buttons have two wires each and I have 10 buttons somewhere else.. so I need a 20 conductor cable that isn't 16 inches around lol Also.. the longer the better.. I'd like 6-8 feet. I could use a choped up IDE cable, but the longest I've found online is 4 feet.


Any help guys?

See if you can find a cable for a parallel printer.

Look up building your own arcade stick. I'm sure alot of the information you'll find for that will work well for your project for case building, and maybe even button selection.

As for the cable, you can try this here:

http://www.amazon.com/BELDEN-1413A-CHANNEL-AUDIO-SNAKE/dp/B000M4CNHW

They also make a 24 Channel version. Price varies from place to place, but you maye be able to find it for around $3 a foot or so if you look around.

[Edit] Heres the 20 channel for $2.50 a foot: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/psho...FTR=belden 1413&CFID=1543894&CFTOKEN=90765816 [/Edit]

+1 for partsexpress. They are a great place if you already know what you have in mind.

Also, if you are willing to go that route, you could consider building your own custom box. Home Depot or your local equivalent will have 2 foot by 2 foot squares of plywood, perf board and square stock and corner irons that you can use to put together a box of any size.

They will do a limited number of custom cuts for you as well. Officially, the limit is one cut per board but they all know that minimizing your work brings in customers, so they will do a few cuts for you. I have never asked them for custom rabbit cuts our routing so I can't speak to that but they are usually willing to accommodate your needs as a customer.

Free tip if you go that route: Bring a tape measure with you and check to see that diagonally opposite corners are the same distance apart. If you get an old guy who understands customer service, this will not be a huge problem but if you get some teenager who does not care, you may get cuts that are not square. And once you are out of the store, you are pretty much screwed.

I made that mistake on a box project a few months ago and ended up having to start from scratch. Fortunately, the boards only cost me like $5 so it did not hurt too much but even so, it sucked.

Once you have your box mostly built, go back to partsexpress and pick up some material to cover it in. I used tolex fake carpet and locking corners because I was building a box for an analog synthesizer for my home studio. You might find that vinyl or hard wood veneer is more to your liking though.