Mounting question on Minigrip Flight Stick

[AzureKnight]

Hello everyone,

I've primarily lurked hear for years now, with long time dreams of building a cabinet at some point.  It looks like after 4 years of trying to get the project off the ground I am finally going to have the time/money/wife support to do so this August. 

I am in the final planning stages now and I'm starting to come across a few questions.

My original plan was to do a full custom built cabinet and have the artwork I want printed by GameOnGrafix (with the adhesive back) mounted to the cp  with no plexi.  All of the joysticks would be recess bottom mounted into the cp.

My concern with that plan now is the MiniGrip Stick I bought from Ultimarc (http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html about halfway down the page).  The stick has very little clearance by design and I'm worried about it fitting in a bottom mount.

Can/should I:

1)  Top mount it under the graphics and hope I never have to take it out?  (this option seems dumb).
2)  Modify or adjust the stick in some way to lengthen it a bit?
3)  Change my plans, buy the art loose and mount it under plexi and top mount everything?
4)  Some other option I haven't thought of?

I'd really love any thoughts or opinions.

-AK

PS after dreaming about this since I was a kid and slowly collecting parts for the last 4 years I cannot say how excited I am to be finally doing this.
PPS Thank you all.  I have learned so much reading here for the last 4 years it is unbelievable.  Thank You.

[mgb]

Just a thought, what if you cut out a part of the cp and recessed in a metal mounting plate from the top (route it to sit flush and bo do it) and the under mount the stick to it.
I'm really a fan of metal control panels so iwou,d even say cut out the whole middle of the cp and put a piece of metal over it to makeup thewhole tope.
Besides, you paint that and your cpo will adhere beutifully.

[lamprey]

Another possible option for you is what I'm doing for my build. I top mounted all my sticks (except the flight stick) and I put a 1/8" layer of plexi over that with the overlay attached to the plexi. That way I can pull the plexi off and access things without having to ruin the overlay. For the flight stick, I routered out from the bottom and left about 1/4" of wood for mounting so it wouldn't be too deep.

[PL1]

Check out this post for a shallow top-mount method that works great and makes it easy to put a smooth finish on top.





If you can fabricate a larger metal plate with threaded studs similar to what MGB suggested, you can bolt the stick on from underneath instead.


Scott

[AzureKnight]

Just a thought, what if you cut out a part of the cp and recessed in a metal mounting plate from the top

This may sound stupid but my specialty is software not construction 

How do you attach the joystick to the metal plate?

[mgb]

You can simply use the tried and true arcade mounting method of using carriage bolts

[AzureKnight]

That makes very simple sense 

[AzureKnight]

lamprey: mounting the graphics to the plexi is a great idea also.  If I go the route of plexi I will absolutely do that.  Thank you.

PL1: thanks for that thread, I'll read through it now.

[PL1]

How do you attach the joystick to the metal plate?

If you don't want the carriage bolt heads visible, you can make a larger mounting plate and weld threaded studs to it like the ones used to mount the SW yoke or trackballs.

 


Scott

[mgb]

yeah, having threaded studs welded on is a good idea. I bought pacman joystick adapters and had a guy weld them in on the under side of my cp.




the adapters are available at a few places including twisted quarter


I like them also because they space the joystick down just a bit so its not sitting too high up top.
the only thing is, these plates may have a different mounting pattern than that minigrip. The mini grip looks to have the smaller japanese mounting pattern so you would possibly need an adapter like paradise arcades sell.

[PL1]

I like them also because they space the joystick down just a bit so its not sitting too high up top.
the only thing is, these plates may have a different mounting pattern than that minigrip. The mini grip looks to have the smaller japanese mounting pattern so you would possibly need an adapter like paradise arcades sell.

Spacing the joystick down is fine for a ball-top or bat-top, but there's almost no wiggle room on these trigger-sticks.

You'll want a flat plate, especially if you're using plexi on your panel.

They do use the same mounting pattern as an LS-32/Zippyy stick.


Scott

[AndyWarne]

This stick has 20mm of clearance on the shaft, below the handle. So should bottom-mount on a 3/4 inch panel with no problems.

Andy

[PL1]

This stick has 20mm of clearance on the shaft, below the handle. So should bottom-mount on a 3/4 inch panel with no problems.

Sorry, Andy, but you're calling THAT 20mm of clearance??!!?? 

Cue the obligatory jokes about why women have trouble estimating length.

Perhaps you posted the wrong picture on your site or you're thinking of the short-shaft Zippyy stick instead?


Scott
EDIT: Updated pic from Ultimarc (above) looks like far more clearance than the similar-looking stick that I bought from Paradise Arcade Shop. (below)  Thanks for the clarification, Andy.   

[AndyWarne]

Just alerted to this thread by a customer. The picture on our site was incorrect, I have now updated it