Multi-Williams CP, continued

I made more progress on my CP today. It took me about 30 minutes to grind down the shoulders of my leaf buttons so they'd fit. I used this Dremel bit:

I wanted to be able to screw leaf switches into wood, so I riffed on a fellow KLOVer's idea. I made a paper template and drilled out a 22"x5-1/2" piece of wood, 1/2" thick. I used a 1/2" spade bit for the joystick lugs, a 1-1/4" hole saw for the buttons, and a 2" hole saw for the joystick itself. Pictures are better than words here:

The small rubbers were great; they hold the wood tight once the WICO joysticks are installed, and they leave just the right amount of room to install the dust cover under the CP:

I checked the clearance with a leaf switch I pulled from my Joust CP, and it was perfect. Unfortunately I forgot to order leaf switches to go with these buttons, so I won't be able to finish this today. 


There is one problem with my wood panel: the holes are too large to hold the PAL nuts. Fortunately the buttons are so tight they don't budge anyway, so this was a non-issue. If I did this again I'd drill a smaller hole, and just use a Forstner bit to cut a shallow hole to clear the button shoulders.