Mounting joystick on Metal Control Panel

[cdngamer]

I have a metal control panel and was wondering if there was a way to mount a joystick to the control panel without screws protruding from the top? (I don't want them ruining my control panel overlay).  I was hoping to use Happ Super joysticks, since they seem to be the most recommended on the forum, but maybe there's another joystick to consider that will allow me to do this?

[Tailgunner]

Factory metal panels that don't use carriage bolts use generally pressed in studs. You could also use flat head machine screws and countersink them flush with the panel, assuming the overlay hasn't been stuck in place yet.

If it has, only thing I can think of would be to stick flat head screws to the inside of the panel with epoxy or JB weld. Going that route I'd countersink some washers so they're flush with the screw heads and stick them in place over the screws to gain more surface area for the adhesive to hold. Be sure to roughen all the surfaces to be bonded together to give the epoxy to something to grip.

[rockhopper]

I've made some aluminium panels for my cocktail cab, and once covered with my adhesive vinyl will look pretty good hopefully, nice and stable - so i've been thinking about the same thing.  
Only other solution I could think of was to mount the joystick on a little platform inside the cp, so that once the panel was in place it would stick through the joystick hole and be nice and flush with the panel.

[paigeoliver]

Real arcade games actually usually do have the carriage bolt heads protruding from the top. Ok, not all of them, but around 90 percent of them do.

[MinerAl]

Take it to your friendly neighborhood gearhead/metalshop and have them spot weld flat head screws in the appropriate spots.  

or the countersink thing mentioned above.  

Or the best of both... countersink them yourself, and then have somebody weld them into place to make them permanently part of the panel.

[cdngamer]

Thanks for all of the advice guys!  It is actually a factory metal panel that uses carriage bolts.  And I haven't put the overlay in place yet.  I'll try and see how far I can countersink the flat head machine screws, unfortunately the control panel is pretty thin (1/8" or less i'd say), so i'm not too hopeful.

I was hoping maybe there was some hardware or something you could get to do this, so that the joystick attached like the buttons do...oh well.  By the way, I haven't actually picked up the Happ supers yet, and noticed on all the joysticks there's a circular disc that goes on top of the control panel.  What is that? A sticker? How does it attach?

Thanks again for all the help!

[Minwah]

By the way, I haven't actually picked up the Happ supers yet, and noticed on all the joysticks there's a circular disc that goes on top of the control panel.  What is that? A sticker? How does it attach?

Thanks again for all the help!

It's just a plastic washer, which hides the hole that the joystick shaft goes through - as the hole is bigger than the shaft to allow the stick to move around.  It is just placed around the shaft of the stick, it is not attached as such (gravity holds it down in place)