First post and DDR pad design

So, here's my blog.
I've started this as a way to catalogue my designs and experiments, let people see what I do, and hopefully motivate myself somewhere in there.

What I post will be both to do with work, where I'm an engraver/designer with a laser cutter and various other tools, and personal projects I work on in my spare time.

The first project is a personal one, a DDR pad.

The arcade video games Dance Dance Revolution and In The Groove have long been passions of mine, and they've rewarded me greatly. I thought it was about time to get my own set up at home.
I haven't done this until now because I played for accuracy and timing, an area where only top of the line home pads can come close to an arcade machine. This is why I decided to build the pad to be as close to an official DDR pad as possible, by making it very solid and using arcade sensors and other arcade parts.

Here's my initial design.

The pad is made up of 3 layers, one sheet of plywood for the bottom, 2x4's in a grid patters providing support for the sensors and panels, and a top layer of plywood covered in sheet metal. All of these layers will be screwed together and the sheet metal will cover all the sides.
There area at the back is approximately to DDR scale, with the other corner cut off for the sake of symmetry, and ample room to bolt a bar through the 2x4's. The side borders are also the same width as the gap between arcade pads.
I'm going to use plywood thicker than 20mm to accomodate for the arcade sensors, around 26mm should do it.

Here are the cut lists for anyone who's interested, be warned my wood hasn't been cut yet so the measurements may be off somewhere.

I don't have access to the tools to cut the wood, nor do I have the skills to cut it well, luckily my Grandad is great at this kind of thing, he's been kind enough to offer to cut it for me at a workshop he has access to. Your the best Grandad :) Now I just hope my measurements are correct.

For the actual building I'll be using Makerspace, check them out, they seem to be an amazing resource. I'm going around to check it out tomorrow.

Well I have alot more information in my head but before I start building it I'll just be talking theories, I will update once I'm at the next step.