Threaded Heat Inserts vs. MDF

Well, well, well,...

Who would have thought this? I mean... as I said in my last post: Using cheap Drywall Screws for mounting the ARC Controller to my Arcade Cabinets' control panel just seemed... cheap to me. Also I think, that it's not the best way to do it in regards to the blobbed IC on the backside of the PCB.

So I decided to design a simple PCB Mount (yeah... I know... it could have been simple distance sleeves as well (and now that I think of it, I actually have some here...)).

However; it took only like 10 minutes to design and print a PCB mounts that works for the ARC Controller.

But... HOW TO MOUNT that damn thing onto the MDF panel?

Well, you may or may not remember that MDF is just wood fibers glued together with some binder. So it can actually not only burn, but also kinda melt in some way. And guess what... I also hav M3 threaded heat inserts and a corresponding attachment for my soldering iron.

So I drilled 4mm holes into the panel, used my iron to kinda "melt" the inserts into that thing and TADAAAAA... it worked perfectly, looks awesome and now I can safely mount the ARC Controller onto the MDF in a sort of professional looking way using nice hex headed screws with metrical threads instead of those cheap drywall screws. ;-)

This is the design of the PCB Mount:

And here's the test mount of the ARC Controller. I LOVE IT!