Well Stainless Steel buttons are out of the question, cost would be way out of line for a hobby purpose. BUT......
We are working on trying to get some buttons spray chromed like the type of plastic chroming you see in automotive applications, we just started researching it so we will keep you posted, probably have an answer early next week. I think we are going to have to get a big batch done to get the price down, and we want to make sure that they will hold up so we might have to have a few in house Street Fighter tourneys to put them through some testing.
Yes, these handles are going to use either a plastic or brass sleeve to make the difference up in the size of the shafts, so you will be able to use whatever handle you want on any of the joysticks by changing the sleeve, thats the detail we are still working out, hence the two weeks till they are available.
We thought of a Stainless Steel trackball, but we are pretty sure it will be too heavy and too slippery when it is up against the steel rollers in the trackball.
Believe it or not, because of the extra weight of this stick, it FEELS so much better in a competition joystick, and in the Optical 360 as well because the Opticals have very strong springs, and feel is everything.
Jerry
SLIKSTIK