WTB: Wico-style black ball top joystick

[More Cowbell]

I'm just looking for one of the simple leaf joysticks that used to be all over on eBay. It is for a wood control panel and hoping for 4-way (not necessarily exclusively but at least switchable via the plastic thingy).

[Kremmit]

Wico's don't switch via the actuator- while 8-ways and 4-ways do have different size actuators, the base is also different:  on a 4-way you get a diamond shaped hole instead of the round one on an 8-way.

If you find a 4-way with the wrong color handle, Ponyboy has a good deal on nice new black handles.  They come with 8-way actuators, though.

[mountain]

Wico's don't switch via the actuator- while 8-ways and 4-ways do have different size actuators, the base is also different:  on a 4-way you get a diamond shaped hole instead of the round one on an 8-way.

If you find a 4-way with the wrong color handle, Ponyboy has a good deal on nice new black handles.  They come with 8-way actuators, though.

I am trying to piece together two 8-ways and one 4-way. What are the differences between the two actuators? Are the 8-ways round and the 4-ways square?

[Knievel]

The 4-way actuator is round, it's just a smaller diameter. Remember that the 4-way also needs the base with the diamond shaped hole, as Kremmit said.

Here's a Wico diagram courtesy of Retroblast.com that might help you out..
http://www.retroblast.com/files/WicoLeafJoystick.pdf

[mountain]

Thanks knievel!

I was confused because the joys that came in the cabinet I am working on had 8-way bases and round actuators 

I have a 4-way base coming from ebay, handles and grommets coming from ponyboy. Now I just need to locate new leaf switches. Any ideas?

[Kremmit]

The square actuators are for microswitch-based Wico sticks.  Afraid I don't know of a source for proper Wico-fitting leafswitches, best you can do is straighten the ones you've got and clean the contacts.

[horseboy]

Afraid I don't know of a source for proper Wico-fitting leafswitches, best you can do is straighten the ones you've got and clean the contacts.

It would be sweet if one of the local vendors did a little repro run of those. That seem like just about the easiest hardware repro ever. Wait a minute... maybe somebody should ask old Dave over at Ram Controls. It seems like it would be cake for that guy to do it.

[SodaPopinksi]

A little while ago I was looking into wico leaf joysticks and noticed: Wico Balltop - Wico Balltop 8-way Leaf Joystick is listed at Ram Controls under "items under consideration for reproduction."