old style sticks that use rubber baseplates, not springs

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i'm talking about the ones that use the big rubber doughnut baseplates.

i would like to know how to harden the rubber doughnut to get a tighter or stiffer feel on my stick? or a possible really stiff replacemeent.

[Kevin Mullins]

We used to use black silicone rubber on motor mounts to stiffen them up.
Can be found most any hardware or auto supply store.
I've been meaning to try this out on a pair of Battlezone sticks I have that are shot anyways. (I know there are replacements available though)
So it might be worth trying a thin layer at a time in the "flex" area until desired stiffness is reached. Even thought it might be thinnable so that it could be applied with a small brush.
This is all theory of course, so test at your own risk.

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We used to use black silicone rubber on motor mounts to stiffen them up.
Can be found most any hardware or auto supply store.

thanks for the input.

i dont quite understand what you mean when you say on motor mounts. how would you stiffen it with this?

[Kevin Mullins]

Hehe... yeah, I thought I might throw some people off with the motor mount reference. I'm a mechanic by nature and I was talking about how we used to stiffen up the rubber type engine mounts once they started splitting and such.
We use to get the bigger caulking gun size tubes to fill the motor mounts, but for something like the grommets you would probably only need a small tube to test with.
Like this maybe: http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3/gpi?id=1574980575

This is more like what we used on the motor mounts:
http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3/gpi?id=1769083487
I know the stuff in the caulking tubes hardens up more like a solid rubber compound.
I'm thinking a thin layer of similar black silicone rubber applied to the old joystick grommets might stiffen them up as well. And another thin layer could be added as needed to make them more stiff. I was going to try it, but just haven't had a chance to pull my joysticks out of the cabinet yet. 
Applying a layer in the thinner "flexible" area of the grommet on each side and let it cure real good before re-assembling them.

It's only a theory of mine, like I said I haven't tried it out yet.

[SavannahLion]

Got a product name? Those links aren't working for me.

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thanks kev but i cant see the links. will anything silicon based be good?

[Kevin Mullins]

Weird.... I even tried those links before I posted them. They were just directly to the picture instead of the full page.
 
Try these two links- they are kinda what I had in mind of trying. Of course something similar from other stores might work and someone else may have a better suggestion.

Small tube: Small tube black silicone

Big tube: Big caulking style tube

Oh, and just a side note when trying to spread this stuff out is to use a slightly wet finger, brush, or whatever applicator of some kind. This helps keep it from sticking to whatever you use to spread it with. Experiment just a little before diving into slapping it on a grommet would be a good idea, just to get a feel for it.

[u_rebelscum]

These are often called grommets (most common name here), though atari called them bellows.  Neither are the best terms (look up the definitions), and IIRC some (most?) were actually vibration isolation mounts used for a very different purpose. 

There were a few different joysticks that had them, and different models of grommets were used by the different brands.  I'm not sure about hardening them, but GGG has replacements for happs 49-way sticks.  Sometimes you can find wico NOS grommets (ponyboy had 'em for a while, but looks like he's busy with RealLife ATM.).  A couple basic "what is grommet?" threads: link 1, link 2.

What model joystick are you trying to refurbish/repair?

[Kevin Mullins]

You're right.... I forget that they use the term "bellows" for some of these as well.
The ones I have been visualizing are like the ones for Battlezone and such like these:
http://www.wizzesworkshop.com/cart/product.asp?intProdID=19
And I was thinking that by applying a layer of silicone in the shallow "flexible" area might work to stiffen or revive a torn one.

[Broken]

These are often called grommets (most common name here), though atari called them bellows.  Neither are the best terms (look up the definitions), and IIRC some (most?) were actually vibration isolation mounts used for a very different purpose. 

There were a few different joysticks that had them, and different models of grommets were used by the different brands.  I'm not sure about hardening them, but GGG has replacements for happs 49-way sticks.  Sometimes you can find wico NOS grommets (ponyboy had 'em for a while, but looks like he's busy with RealLife ATM.).  A couple basic "what is grommet?" threads: link 1, link 2.

What model joystick are you trying to refurbish/repair?

its a suzo... the old school suzos.

http://www.highway.net.au/parts/joysticks/4235_1.html

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http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:NyKRxgJzHaAJ:www.happcon trols.com/vending/vendpart/ap/automatic_3.htm+suzo+grommet&a mp;a mp;hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=uk

1:    Vending Parts Automatic Products

   Item Number: 24400041    

   Grommet .47dia Rmi
1:    Vending Parts Automatic Products

   Item Number: 24400067    

   GROMMET PLUG .87 DIA    

   

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