Budget TGM(2+?) setup?

Aren't a lot of PCBs made of fibreglass though? Anyway..
Because of what little space I have to work with it's easier to move a few cables about than it is to move the boards themselves. Before I got my JAMMA extensions switching between TGM1 and TAP took around 2-5 minutes. Now it'd take about 20 seconds.

 

Or better yet git gud at both
The game burn-out is real, yo.

 

FYI you might want to be careful about this with certain boards. I don't know what you have except for TGM stuff, but there are some boards with really poorly placed surface mount chips that don't take ANY flexing AT ALL such as the ST-V motherboard. Always inspect for those when you get a new PCB so you can at least try and avoid flexing the relevant section as much as possible.

 

Yeah there are a few boards that you should be vary of - mostly if there are any large capacitors on long legs, placed out in the open. SSV boards are also noteworthy for an extremely vulnerable heat sink, that could easily crush the components beneath it.
That said, I have around ~90 arcade boards, and I never really had an issue with any of them. The TAP board is a very sturdy one with very few exposed bits, so I don't worry so much about that one. TGM1 has the motherboard thing, but my impression is that it feels pretty sturdy as well.
In general I'd just say you really shouldn't worry about moving around your boards - just make sure you aren't charged with static electricity or something stupid like that.

Btw, my ST-V is one board I've already moved around to several events. Hell, when I got it it was just lying around loose (without any kind of wrapping) in a big box full of various arcade gear and multiple other PCBs - obviously I would advise against that - storing arcade PCBs like that puts them at a heavy risk of scratching eachother, and when storing or carrying boards around I always bubblewrap them up, as anyone should, of course.

 

Yeah, I mean definitely true. I think people generally tend to worry about the wrong things and then not worry about the things that they maybe should be concerned about. Ah well, this stuff is hard!

 

I was thinking of a non-conductive plastic-y frame for each of the boards I get also so there's an easier time mounting/dismounting.

 

Most pcbs back in the day were just mounted on ply wood that you would slide in an out of the cab after plugging/unplugging the jamma/non-jamma harness. Today we have dollar store plastic cutting boards

 

If I were any good with wood, yeah, I'd go with that instead, but... x:

 

It's literally just screwing the PCB feet on to a board, that's it. It won't encase the board, but it makes it easier to handle. It also makes it bigger and heavier, though - I've removed the plywood from all the boards that came with them. But I've considered investing in plastic cutting boards before

 

...I've never worked with wood all that much. I got a bit sheltered, on that end.