When i'm about to mod my TurboGrafx and PCengine boards, i'll be more active here for a while, catching up on recent threads to see if there are things I need to research.
On the subject of shielding, i've opened up a lot of consoles, and every one has shielding, some can be a hassle to remove too.
I think originally shielding was so prevalent as interference could happen if you put one system on top of another, especially regards RF units. Cheaper for companies to install shielding than having to deal with product recall I guess. Gadgets these days still tend to often have shielding, although less common.
nullity - you can make a vacuum forming table for next to nothing, what costs though are the plastic sheets, and whatever you use for a mold.