This is a mod that I thought of as soon as I swapped to Sanwa parts on my T5 stick. I kept hitting the wrong buttons in 3s due to the extra two buttons. I also didn’t like the look or feel of button plugs. So I decided to cover the extra holes with vertical grade formica. It turned out that it is the exact same thickness that the original plastic sticker thing was. Regular or horizontal grade formica is thicker and stiffer, but I didn’t want to feel an edge where the top plate meets the base. The inital steps are below with more details on the hole cutting/ filing on my picasaweb album.
- Remove buttons and stick from top plate- if Hori originals they must be desoldered
- Remove thick plastic sticker thing from plate- I used utility knife to get under an edge and ripped it in one big peice.
- Remove the “glue” residue with scraper/putty knife and laquer thinner, goo gone or whatever chemical you have handy. Rubbing alcohol will not work very well on this adhesive and will take forever, I don’t recommend it.
- Using a new razorblade in a utility knife (do not use scissors this stuff is too brittle and will crack ruining the whole project)Cut a piece of formica a few inches bigger than the size of the metal plate. This is important, since once you glue the peices together it is extremely hard to reposition the formica, so just make it big and trim/file it later. If you are not good at freehand cutting with a razor, use something to guide your cut, a metal ruler or the like.
- In a dust free area, using a cheap paint brush, old toothbrush or old rag apply an even layer of contact cemet to the formica’s bottom side and the plate’s top side. You don’t want any globs of glue and it only needs to be about 1/32-1/16" thick. Wait for glue to dry until tacky to touch, but will not stick to your hand. Usually 15-20 mins.
- Carefully position the formica above the plate (but don’t attach it yet) till you can see it will overlap all sides of the plate by at least 1/8", slowly lower it down the formica onto the plate starting from one side then smooth it onto the middle, the the other side. You basically want to avoid air bubbles getting trapped under the formica.
- Double check your formica still overlaps, then apply pressure with the palms of your hands to make sure the formica is securely attached to the plate. Again, make sure you smooth out any air bubbles, because once the glue sets, the bubble is there to stay.
- Put the plate face down on the work bench. Using a razorblade (do not use scissors this stuff is too brittle and will crack ruining the whole project) cut off the excess formica from the edges. Make sure to leave a lip of formica that is at least 1/16" bigger than the metal top plate, because the metal plate is not exactly the size of the hole in the stick’s plastic base
- The rest of the steps about filing the holes and edges are on my picasa web album with pics.
If you feel like you want this mod, but don’t have the time, skill, paintence, or tools to do so, I can do it for you. See this thread in the trading post, for price, colors etc. If you have questions not answered in that thread please PM me.
Modded T5’s for sale
Most remove the 1st two buttons.
