Pac-Pro with longer shaft bottom mounted in 3/4"

[AzureKnight]

I'm looking into getting a 4 way controller and the Pac-Pro looks like a very good option.  I've searched the forum, read up on it and I am interested.

However I will most likely be looking to bottom mount this controller in 3/4" plywood using a longer VersaBall2 shaft.  I know that Randy has mentioned in a few other threads that this might cause the alignment of the controller to be off and not work well.

Has anyone tried this yet?  I've searched the forums and couldn't find anything.

If so and if there are issues, could someone recommend a different 4 way that would be good for this scenario?

[Saneless]

I played around with a zippy long shaft mounted to the bottom of 3/4 and I hated it to be honest.  Just felt so much work to go back and forth with pac man and DK. 

I switched to the short shaft version, sucked it up and did 1/4" routing, and it's considerably better.  I think by going the long-shaft route you're eliminating anything that makes the joystick preferable to anything else out there.

[AzureKnight]

That is actually what I am afraid of...my issue comes into play that I am assembling my CP now and I am in a hurry to finish (firstly, because I want to play with it, secondly because we host a lot of holiday gatherings soon 2 Thanksgiving dinners, 1 Birthday party, 1 Baby shower).

I won't be free to buy a 4 way for a bit though, so it will have to go in after the CP is built.  I also don't own a router, I borrowed one to do what I needed to do.  But really the biggest issue is that I designed a really complicated CP so in the end I was hoping to be able to just plug something underneath so I won't have to take it all apart again.  I suppose I can buy one, try it bottom mounted and if I hate it, do the full dis-assembly to put it on top. 

If no one else chimes in here later that is probably what I will do, I'll also update this thread on the results for anyone else who goes looking in the future.

[Saneless]

Well if you are really in a hurry, I got my Zippy from cajun arcade in like 2 days.  Super fast.

http://www.shop.cajunarcade.com/Joystick-ZIPPYY-Long-Shaft-Joystick-ZIPPYY-Long-Shaft.htm

It's about as cheap as you can get and will work until you figure out something else.

[lamprey]

I'm not sure what tools you have at your disposal, but I did some modification to the Versa shaft to use in Pac-Pro. I don't have a large toolset, but my goal was to be able to use the shaft to screw on a ball top of my own creation. Unfortunately, the versa shaft is too long for my liking. So, I put it in my drill press and used that as a make-shift lathe to make the thick portion skinner, so it would slide down into the pac-pro further. Also a carved/lathed out some new "channels" for the c-clamp rings (what ever they are called that hold the shaft in place) to shift the position of the shaft down. I also made it stick out about 1/4 inch longer that the shaft that comes with the pac-pro. I then just cut off the bottom since I didn't need the extra. Not sure if I'm going to use it like that or not, but since the versa shaft is aluminum it's not too hard to modify.

[jaharr01]

You could take 2 pieces of 3/8 board make the relief area on top of the second board. cut the hole out for the joystick. Then drill a hole in the top board  over where the joystick is cutout then, then glue them together.See side view attached.If your joy sticks are in a line you could cut out the relief with a saw

Jay

[AzureKnight]

Thanks for the feedback.

Honestly, I'm not too worried about mounting it or that the shaft would be too long.  I'm worried that the stick won't perform well/correctly with the longer shaft bottom mounted through 3/4" as it was designed to be top mounted with the shorter shaft.

I could top mount it, but I won't be buying one until my CP is done.  It would  be quick and easy to install it bottom mounted.  But since I have a layered plexiglass top on my CP it will be a LOT of work to unhook everything to top mount it.