First, decide on your goal here.

Do you want a metal pad for simple home enjoyment and durability, or to actually mimic as closely as possible the real arcade? If you're going for a durable, but functional pad for use at home, that is definitely doable and I would try talking to Dancing Tofu about it. He's got some design he made that is rather similar to the Cobalt Flux's, but is much cheaper to make and looks easy to construct.

However, if you're trying to recreate a true arcade pad, I'd stop right there.

Goatee_guy has made the closest I've seen to a home made arcade pad. According to him, it cost him quite a lot of money and a ridiculous amount of time. He enjoyed working on the project, so more power to him. But making a pad out of METAL isn't cheap. Metal is expensive and having it custom made for a dance pad is even more crazy. If you want to mimic the arcade experience as legitimately as possible, then you're best solution is to buy a DDR Extreme machine for $3000 and put a J-pack on it to run Stepmania.

If you're still serious about this thing, I suggest contacting Goatee_Guy via his contact info on the youtube video's page.

Alright so I might just get a Pump It Up machine and hack it or something. Found one on ebay for $1000. Might be able to get that. Off topic, but is there a way to hack an MK3 Pump machine to run a later mix?

No, there isn't. There are many reasons but the fact that the MK3 was made in 1999 should tell you why. 

lol



oh crap i'm late