I applied the wax last night. I actually wish I had better pictures. The ones below are my before/after, but the after ones aren't as good as some of the other after ones that I didn't take befores for...it can get fairly seamless, which it isn't necessarily in these pictures. In any case, I'm fine enough with the result to move on -- nobody is going to notice and the t-molding is going to pop.
Before #1:
After #1:
Before #2:
After #2:
Some lessons here:
1. cover your clothes with some plastic so you don't get melted wax on your pants.
2. to actually get a seamless finish, melt the wax so it is almost dripping, "drip" it onto the bare spot, then don't wait too long (maybe 10-15 seconds) before using a blade to trim the excess wax off -- otherwise instead of cutting the wax like butter, you'll end up cutting half of it and the other half will catch and it will all get removed.
I also received my 0.394" threaded inserts and cut the t-molding slots, and began to apply the t-molding. I used 5/8" and a FastCap quad trimmer. The quad trimmer wasn't working that great the way it was meant to be used, so I've been using "half" of the trimmer to trim a side at a time. It worked great. The 5/8" also worked super well with the control panel, which is 1/2 + 0.093" for the plexi = .593 (plus the thickness of paper if I decide to put in art), so I didn't need to trim at all for the cp.
The 0.394" inserts worked great in the 1/2" particle board. I made 5/16 holes down to a total depth of 0.42", and countersunk them since the inserts are flanged. I used the joystick mounting kit from groovygamegear for them -- they are #10-32 screws and inserts.