Please forgive me is this is already common knowledge, but I haven’t seen it on any custom arcade sticks before. This is my first post, but I’ve been a long time lurker and arcade gamer.
I’m modding a Mayflash with Sanwa parts (white buttons and mesh ball) and couldn’t find a white dust washer online so I did this. I just spray painted it white and then sanded it down. The paint remains in the texture on the top of the washer. Super easy to do and impossible to mess up. I think it’s cool because it keeps the stock Sanwa texture pattern. Painting it solid white would cover it. This way you can still tell it’s Sanwa by looking at it.
There are so many awesome sticks displayed on this site that are way cooler than mine will be! I’m jealous. But I think so many custom color-themed sticks could benefit from this simple, easy, basically free mod instead of using the stock black Sanwa dust washer.
The pic is from a camera phone, sorry for the quality. In real life the pattern looks very sharp.
Sticks with more colors could benefit from some masking and using mutiple colors of spray paint.
Right now, the “personalized” dustwashers are not available – he’s swamped with orders for the acrylic joystick cases – but he’s been doing things like “arrow” dust washers and clear dust washers for over a year now.
I’ve seen his dust washers before but didn’t know he did a plain white one. When ordering parts I just did a quick search for white acrylic dust washer and didn’t find anything, so I resigned myself to using the stock black one (I knew there were other custom designs out there but wanted plain white). After looking at the Sanwa dust cap for a while I got the idea for filling the valleys in with paint and sanding the peaks back to plastic. Didn’t think it would turn out great, so I figured I would just use the second supplied dust washer instead.
The thing turned out cooler than I thought, so I just wanted to share. It’s super easy to do, and I’ve seen a lot of really awesome sticks on this site and others with stock dust washers that don’t match the ball and buttons. Of course they could benefit from Art’s products as well, but if someone wants to DIY it, this is a good option I think. And I still haven’t seen it before, so I think it’s pretty unique.
Thanks! I will post pics. I finished the soldering today but then had to leave for work (graveyard shift). I want to borrow a decent digital camera to take pics. Maybe this weekend.
I hate to be a broken record, but the dust cap does look a lot better in real life and hopefully with a better camera. I’ve been modding consoles, controllers, electric guitars etc… for my own use for over 10 years, but I’m not very good at it. This is the first unique mod I have done that looks like someone with skill did it, but it’s actually very easy.
The main purpose of my post isn’t to show off, but to encourage other people to try it. If you have yellow buttons (for example) and a stock Sanwa dust cap, buy some yellow spray paint for $3 and you have a sweet DIY dust cap. You can even do it without sand paper.
I’ll try to get some better pictures up after Thanksgiving. Hopes ya’ll on SRK have a good holiday. I’ll be playing classic Mame fighters with my newly completed Sanwa Mayflash. Oh, and spending time with the family too… I guess…
Thanks for posting that! I like Art’s white arrow dust cap, but I’ve never seen a white shaft cover for sale (though I knew they were out there). I want it!
The dust cap I painted looks a little too flashy for my stick (which is pretty much just subtle black/white), so I might buy a plain white dust cap (and shaft cover) after all. I’ll post a pic of my stick with the painted dust washer this weekend, but I think I am going to buy the MC plain white dust cap and shaft cover. The Madcatz dust cap has arrows on it like Art’s, but they look more subtle. Is that just the pic? Does Art make these for MC?
The website says it fits most Japanese sticks. Does it fit the Sanwa JLF properly?
Edit: Yep, it does. I’ve never had a MC Fightstick; didn’t know they had Sanwa stock.
Here’s another stupid question: Why do joysticks come with 2 dust caps and Madcatz sells them in pairs as well? I know you can put them above or below the case (I prefer above), but you don’t need both, do you?
