Mounting Sanwa 18mm snap-in buttons to MDF

[Timstuff]

Now that I've decided on using a wood panel with Happ Competition buttons for my single player CP, I've got another question: is it possible to mount a Sanwa 18mm snap-in pushbutton on a wood panel? I ordered 3 of them to act as the start, select, and home buttons on my CP, and I need to know how I should go about putting them in place.

http://lizardlick.com/images/for_sale/pushbuttons/sdm_18_w.jpg

I know that the 18mm Sanwas are designed for metal panels, so how far would I have to route the MDF to make them fit? Would the MDF even be stable enough if it was thin enough to mount them?

If there's no way to do that, I could just cut a rectangle out of a cookie tin, drill 30mm holes in it with a forstner bit, and flush mount that to the CP's top, but that seems like it'd be quite a bit of work if it is in fact possible to mount the buttons directly onto the MDF.

[lettuce]

You could just push them in and then glue in place, or if your lucky the holes you've cut might be a tight enough fit so they just squeeze in place.. I think the MDF would be too weak if you were to route it down to 3mm

[Timstuff]

I'll probably give that a try. I can probably get away with routing down to a 1/2" to make wiring easier, but I'll be happy to hot glue them in place if it means I won't have to bother with a mounting plate.

[Bleagh]

If you were using plexi on top of your panel you could cut a hole bigger than the button through the mdf and use the screw in type 30mm buttons directly on your plexi.