Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: ericball on August 29, 2004, 07:41:33 pm
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As noted in my previous posts Mounting leaf buttons in wood (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=21285;start=msg172186#msg172186) and Any good Wico experiences? (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=21865;start=msg177143#msg177143) I ordered some leaf buttons from Wico. I now have them in my posession and can give some details.
The buttons are 1 3/4" long with a 7/8" thread, so I think they qualify as long buttons. The leaf holder (black, though the order slip indicated white) has a 1" diameter 1/8" high spacer. But if the spacer is set in the hole (3/4" wood) then the bottom of the plunger just rests against the leaf switch.
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OK
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But if the spacer is set in the hole (3/4" wood) then the bottom of the plunger just rests against the leaf switch.
I had the same issue. You're going to have to make yourself some spacers. I used washers and it worked for me.
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The buttons are 1 3/4" long with a 7/8" thread
I think those are the short ones. The long ones are supposed to be 2".
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Just a picture of the button (not pressed) mounted in 3/4" wood (1 1/8" hole).
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FractalWalk, you're getting a bit confused as far as leaf switch button sizes go. This is understandable due to the fact that different suppliers measure leafswitch buttons differently. Examples..
Both Wico and Centsible Amusements label the short (for metal) leafswitch button lenth to be 1 5/8" and the long ones (for wood) to be 2". These two companies measure the *whole* button (in it's un-depressed state) Take note that both of these companies are off a 1/16" on the short style and a 1/8" on the long style. (compared to measurments taken by "Suzo" which are far more accurate) See their measurments at the bottom of this post)
Marco specialties says that the short style is 1" and the long style is 1 1/2". They get their measurments by measuring from the underside of the bezel (the side that rests on the top of your control panel) down to the tip of the button including the plunger (the part that makes actual contact with the leafswitch)
Bob Roberts comes up with 5/8" for the short style and 7/8" for the long style. Bob only measures the lenth of the threads starting from the bottom of the button base down to the end of the threads and does *not* include the plunger in his measurments.
And lastly "Suzo" comes in as the most accurate and correct way to measure a leafswitch button IMHO. They come up with 1 9/16" for the short style and 1- 13/16" for the long style. They get their measurments by measuring the same way that Wico and Centsible Amusements does but Suzo's measurments are more accurate as if they used a caliper gauge instead of just holding a button up to a tape measure. I have two different brands of both long and short style leafswitch buttons and both brands have the same dimentions so I personally don't think that button dimentions vary from brand to brand. At least not when it comes to leafswitch style buttons. Microswitch buttons are a different story. With the exception of Wico and Centsible's inaccurate measurments,all other companies are correct in their measurments according to the *way* the go about measuring them. After measuring with a caliper I've concluded that only two different sizes of leaf switch buttons exist. "Short" for metal cp's and "long" for wooden cp's and Marco Specialties has the most accurate measurments. I took the time to explain this because I know I got very confused a while back when I was researching these buttons before buying them so this should clear up some confusion. Bob Roberts has a pretty good explanation on the button holders on his site so I won't go into them (unless someone asks me to ;D)
Please note that I did not include Nintendo buttons in my comparison due to the fact that they are pretty much odd ball buttons that are different even in diameter size let alone lenth wise. Nintendo liked to be different so that an owner of one of their machines had to go back to them to purchase replacement parts because they were and still are the greediest company in the business. ::) If you happen to purchase a batch of used buttons on Ebay and one of them is too small and doesn't fit snug into the button hole in your control panel then its probably a friggin Nintendo button. They are smaller in diameter then the arcade standard for leafswitch buttons. I got stuck with a few of these when I bought a buttload of used buttons a while back. I have since sold all my Nintendo buttons so I don't have accurate dimentions for them. If someone else has any of these white elephants maybe thay could post the dimentions for future reference. :)
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Well, let me put it this way: I ordered red and blue translucents. I ordered red short becuase that is all that was available and I ordered blue long because I am using wood.
What I got were buttons that were all exactly the same sizeand matched the measurements in this thread. When I installed them in 1/2" ply it looked just about like eric's except the contacts were forced close due to the thinner panel.
So either I was sent the "long" red ones or the blue ones are short. Since long red translucents are a rarity, I assume that I have short buttons.
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FractalWalk, it sounds like you ended up getting long ones. Could you measure the entire lenth of the buttons or post a picture ? I do know that if the long style buttons are mounted in wood thats less then 3/4" thick that it will cause the result that you have explained unless a spacer is used. I'm curious to see how long your buttons are. I'm gonna go back and reread the posts as I think I may be misreading and interpreting the problem.
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Well it looks like I must have the long style then.
Plunger length is 1-13/16"
Under-side of bezel to tip of plunger = 1-7/16"
Button Holder length is 1-7/16"
Thread length on button holder - 31/32"
That's really strange that I would get sent the long red ones when they claim not to have them. Lucky for me though, becuase I needed them!