mounting a t-stik

[mackem73]

Hello,
I'm thinking more about the details of an arcade cabinet I'm making, and in particular the joysticks. I'm buying from Ultimarc and really fancy the classic t-stik with a ball-top rather than the more common e-stick.

Anyway, regarding mounting the t-stik (or any of the joysticks other than the easy mount stick), this might sound like a daft question, but is the black (I presume) dust cover mounted above the control panel or below?

And I guess, if it's above, how do you stop it from moving, and if it's below what size of gap do you need to make to allow full movement?

Apologies for being a a newbie, but I haven't seen any control panels close-up enough to work it out

Neil.

[Shape D.]

Originally they are supposed to be mounted underneath the cp.

however if its a t-stick plus I'd reccomend mounting it above.

And what do you mean stop it from moving?

[PaulG]

I have mine mounted above the CP.  Always thought this was the obvious route, till I saw some threads where this was debated.  Never even dawned on me that underside was an option.

As for it moving:  It fits snugly around the shaft and moves with that.  It doesn't move much, however, because the throw really isn't very long.

[NoOne=NBA=]

The underside mount is not an option on the T-stiks.
The dustwasher is put onto the sticks before the balltop, and gets trapped between the balltop and the flange that keeps the stick from falling through, so it can't be removed.

You could cut them off, and mount the stick without them, but there's no way to mount them with the dustwasher below the CP art.

[mackem73]

Cheers. Above it is then

Are there any decent sites that list top tips like this that you never really think about until it's too late or are never mentioned in the 'this is how I built my cabinet' type sites?

You know things like the above, whether to route the groove for the t-moulding before or after the cabinet is put together, etc.

[EDIT]
Actually, if you read ultimarc about the t-stick:

"Available in two lengths:
65mm (2 1/2 in) for top-mounting or 72mm (2 7/8 in) for under-panel mounting."

Doesn't this mean it works either way with the dust washer, or is it talking about something else?

Neil.

[pacmod]

I bought the t-stik ball top and you can take the dust cover off or leave it on.  The ball top is an option that you can interchange with the t-stik joystick.  It will come with a standard handle with the long grip and you just take it off and install the new ball top.  Am I missing something with your question?  I have always mounted the dust cover above the control panel.

[NoOne=NBA=]

"Available in two lengths:
65mm (2 1/2 in) for top-mounting or 72mm (2 7/8 in) for under-panel mounting."

That refers to how you mount the stick itself.
You can rout into the top of the CP, to mount it from above, or use the longer handles, and mount from below.

I routed the bottom of my 3/4" CP to get just a little more height out of the long balltops.
The short balltops barely clear the CP when bottom mounted without routing.
The long balltops felt short to me without routing the bottom.
With the bottom routed about 1/4-3/8", the long balltops feel about right to me.

They are still shorter than my Wicos, but I'm not skinning my knuckles on the CP.