Short Leaf Buttons on Willams Wood CP??

jdhogg

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Trying to find some translucent 1 and 2 player, light blue and pale yellow buttons for my wood CP Joust restore. It looks like I need long leaf buttons with the "wood" button holder, but I can't find anyone that sells long buttons with these colors.

Bob Roberts has the short ones, but the only way I can see to make they work is to hack-off the button holder so it doesn't hold the button anymore. I would only hold the "leaf".

And if I were to do this, what would hold the button in place? The cp I have now is bore out and I'm sure microswitch buttons were used instead.
 
If you are talking about those white plastic button holders, they are really only for metal CPs.

It sounds like what you need to do is to fill the current holes with bondo and rebore the holes and countersink the back so the nut fits. Otherwise you will drive yourself crazy (almost said nuts :)).

Arcadeshop has the short buttons in the Joust colors and they are spot on. They also have some transparent buttons as I recall.

ken
 
ok thanks guys. i'm probably not the first to say it, but i think these wood cps with metal plates suck ass. if the metal cps were avalible from arcadeshop, i would buy one in a heartbeat.

i've never used a router before, so i'll borrowing one from my woodworker friend. but i'm confused on why to countersink the back. to me, looks like i have to first drill a 5/8" (guessing on the width) hole through the 3/4" cp for the threaded part of the button and router a 1-1/8" wide and about 1/4" down from the top of the cp, so the button sits in the countersunk whole from the top. does that sound about right?
 
JD - if you are restoring an original Joust CP - they use the standard Wico short leaf buttons as-is, no need to alter the CP at all.

One light yellow, one light blue, two translucent red.

Oh- just saw the part where the holes were bored out...hmmm.

Can you post a pic or two?

I just did a complete resto on my Joust CP, so it's fresh in my mind.

RussM
 
Hey Russ.

Here is the cp. Got lots of gunk on it yet as you can see. Need to clean and sand yet. I'm pretty much set on using dowels and bondo on the existing holes and drilling new ones. I did not foresee this button issue a week ago....
 

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Russ:

Just noticed you are a fellow 'sconsinite. Packers looks pretty good this year...

Anyhow, here is another pic of a short leaf button from Mike's Arcade.

See what I mean...the lip of the button has to be sitting on the top of the cp, but the bottom nut needs to tighten to wood under the cp. the nut exceeds the width of the threading of the button (which is roughly 5/8" or so). with the bored out hole, the nut does not tighten to the cp.

thanks in advance.
 

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thought i would post this too. picture from modessitt.

the buttons are not held in place by button holders. the leafs are all by themselves and are mounted separately.
 

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The way to do it is to fill the hole completely. Use a spade bit 1-1/8" to countersink 1/4" to 7/16" into the top. This fits the wide part of the button. Then drill the rest of the way through with a 5/8" bit (spade or twist, your choice). This is for the threaded part of the button. If the button is not long enough to go all the way through so that the nut will fasten on, then you need to add two additional steps before you drill the 5/8" hole:
1) drill a 1/8" pilot hole straight through.
2) on the reverse side, drill a 1-1/8" countersink about 1/4" deep. This is where the nut will sit.
3) perform the steps listed above.

If you try to countersink the back side of the hole after the 5/8" hole is drilled than you will need to use a router (if you can figure out how to do it from the top side) or a wood chisel to remove enough material to allow the nut to grab.

ken
 
got ken thanks.

i have cut the pieces of wood to fill the holes today. i'll be keeping them there with gorilla glue, bondo and sanding.

quick question, can i use the spade bit with a regular drill? i was going to buy a 1-1/8" bit that looked like a "cup" with a serrated edge. drill about 1/4" down and use a dremel rotary tool to clean it up.
 
got ken thanks.

i have cut the pieces of wood to fill the holes today. i'll be keeping them there with gorilla glue, bondo and sanding.

quick question, can i use the spade bit with a regular drill? i was going to buy a 1-1/8" bit that looked like a "cup" with a serrated edge. drill about 1/4" down and use a dremel rotary tool to clean it up.

Yes. You just need to go fairly slowly or it will go right through. They chew up wood and bondo very fast if you are not careful.

Just so we are all on the same page, spade bits look like this:

pACE2-977318dt.jpg


Sorry if the picture is redundant, but what your are describing sounds like a hole saw blade. This is a hole saw:

pACEBW-1110400dt.jpg


A hole saw will work but you will need to cleanup the hole to remove the ring left between the outer hole and the inner hole.

ken
 
thanks again ken. i'm going to go with the hole saw blade since i have to go through the metal plate on top of the cp. I have taken off the metal plate, removed old t-nuts, placed dowels in the holes, and will bondo and sand that until smooth. then, attach the metal cp and bondo the holes to top of that. Then finally drill the holes.

I also saw another post of yours and will add t-nuts sandwiched between the metal and wood for the joysticks.
 
I also saw another post of yours and will add t-nuts sandwiched between the metal and wood for the joysticks.

Good choice! It's just a little touch that make the control panel look a little more like the original factory fresh control panels.

ken
 
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