routing wood to support Sanwa OBSN-30s - is this enough support?

[laggerific]

I'm currently working on my control panel design, and I really want to stick with Sanwa buttons even though this is a MDO and plexi CP.  Plywood is 5/8" with a 1/8" plexi top.  So, one suggestion I see quite a bit is to route slightly bigger holes in the wood, leaving about 1/8" or so of wood at the top.  This would provide about 1/4" thickness to screw the buttons on with.  But, the problem is that the larger holes overlap eachother underneath, so I'm wondering if I should just route completely under the buttons, leave 1/8" of plywood and 1/8" plexi to attach to.  Would that provide enough support, or am I likely to be sad about that decision a year down the line?  My measurements indicate this would likely be roughly 6"x4" section under the buttons that would be thinner.

I can't use the snap-ins, as I want to use the buttons to help fasten the plexi to the wood.  Although, if anyone had any other reasonable method for attaching the plexi to the wood, I'd love to hear it.  Although, thinking about notching 40+ holes to support the snap-ins makes me feel a little queasy, as I am not in any way "shop-adept".

[apfelanni]

my advise would be to take a metal panel and screwable sanwa or seimitsu buttons to secure the plexi ( they are manufactured for 8-10 mm max. panels thickness ) . in thick wooden panels i allways use 28 mm long us-eurostyle standard pushbuttons , konkav if its a classic cab and konvex buttons for japanese layouts. the use of router /forstner to thin the panel would give me a headache . 

[Franco B]

I use a couple of drilling and routing guides to drill and recess my panels:







As apfelanni the buttons can only be used on a panel thickness up to about 8-10mm so if I'm using 3mm acrylic I recess the panel to ~5mm thick.

I can make you a pair of guides if you wish. The hole posistions are accurate to within a couple of 0.001" of the Slagcoin Sega dimensions.

[jmike]

I use a couple of drilling and routing guides to drill and recess my panels:







As apfelanni the buttons can only be used on a panel thickness up to about 8-10mm so if I'm using 3mm acrylic I recess the panel to ~5mm thick.

I can make you a pair of guides if you wish. The hole posistions are accurate to within a couple of 0.001" of the Slagcoin Sega dimensions.

 Franco B. I remember when you used to make the plastic templates. I wasn't able to get a set (you stopped making them) but they sure looked cool.


 

[Franco B]

Thanks

I think you meant the button array bezels I did? They were not templates, they were purely for decoration.

I did do some thick acrylic punch guides for NIVO maybe you meant them?

I don't do the button arrays anymore but I do quite a lot of custom plastics work for people. If you need something let me know. 

[Aithos]

Sorry to drag an old topic back up but I saw some pictures here that I thought were interesting.  I'm currently designing a new top for my Mame CP, I'm using the Hori layout from slagcoin as a base for my 7 button layout:  4 on bottom 3 on top.  I want to use Seimitsu snap-in buttons because those are the only ones with the colors and feel that I want so I'm having a hard time figuring out the best approach to mounting them.  I figure I'll have to route the panel regardless and I'm planning on having 1/8" plexi but I haven't been able to find any information on the best way to mount snap-in buttons.  I don't mind screwing the plexi down so I don't need to use the buttons to hold it in place, my only concern is to securely mount the buttons so they have good durability and don't slip or move.  Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks!

[laggerific]

I'm no expert, but I suppose you could take out notches in the wood part of the CP, where the snaps are, and just have them snap into the plexi...I believe I've heard people do this.  It keeps the button from spinning and the button should be snug with 1/8", I would think...but that is where I am least an expert.

[Aithos]

Maybe I will just buy one of each button and get some scrap wood and try it.  I'd hate to order snap-in buttons only to find that it doesn't work at all and I have to spend another 60-70 bucks on them, but on the flip side I'd hate to order screw buttons in a color I don't like as well only to find out later that I could have gotten it to work and spend the money the other way.  Why can't Seimitsu just release navy screw in buttons!!!

[laggerific]

Yeah, the button discrepancy is quite disappointing.  I did pick up a couple buttons to see which one I wanted to use...I am mainly using the Seimitsu screw-ins, but I have 4 snapins at the top which will be UI like buttons, but in the middle is a 5th button with a white screw-in base and the same dark green of the snapins...this will be the pause button, but also provides some support for holding in the plexiglass layer.