**UPDATE** (July 10, 2004)
Here's the latest news... I am still chasing down a price quote from a machinist to do a "turn off" on the joystick shafts. (I thought "lathing" was the proper term, but it's not. They call it "turn off".)
Anyways, I have a lead on a guy to do it cheap, but he's on holiday. In the meantime, I got impatient and built myself a contraption out of Lego, in which I can mount the shaft, have it spin around, and while it's spinning I use my Dremel with tungsten carbide cutter to shave the metal off.
Well that worked! I got it down so that the shaft now fits in my joystick base properly, and I was able to get the e-clip on and everything. The end result just doesn't look pretty--it's rough. See blurry photo here:
If you guys think that it doesn't matter (that part of the shaft is hidden down in the joystick base anyways) then I will go ahead and manually "modify" all the shafts myself.
The other oustanding matter is buttons. The picture earlier in this thread of the button with black "rim" is a pretty sturdy, rounded Radio Shack button. I can order them in bulk but only get 5% discount.
I have a lead on another kind of button which is way cheaper, but does not have the "rim" around the button. It's also more of a sharp edged button. The joystick with that button would look like this:
Those of you interested in this joystick need to let me know which kind of button you prefer. (PM me) The Radio Scrap button is more ergonomic and the "lip" will help keep dirt and stuff from getting inside. The other kind though will likely shave off about $2 from the total price of each joy/button assembly.
~Ray B.