I was directed to post a thread of this over here by airthrow on the DontBlowThis Forums as he has never heard of this method.
For those that may already know of me, I’ve been bringing a Super Turbo cabinet to Philadelphia NEC and GVN events over the past two years. Each time I do, I take in the criticisms for whatever I’ve done to my cabinet for to help with the event. The most dominant complaint I had received was the decision on Joystick and button selection. Now, putting in Sanwa OBSFs were no issue, but trying to get a Sanwa JLF (the most popular and accepted Japanese stick thanks to MadCatz) in my cabinet was going to be difficult. I did research around the net to see if there was anything I could do that would cost effectively allow me to put a JLF in there.
Here’s the main problem most people with this dilemma face: The Japanese mounting plate will not by default fit an American designed (Happ) control panel. In the case of my Capcom CE Big Blue, the CP is made up of a thin sheet metal with four prongs around each joystick throw hold to easily mount a Happ. Then under the metal is a 3/4" wood panel with the space cut out for room on buttons and stick. The prongs on the metal are not easily movable as they are directly welded into place. This typically results in people having to do metal or wood work to get Japanese arcade sticks on an American wood cabinet.
So first thing I looked into was an easy Japanese stick that fit the pre-determined prongs in the metal CP. As was suggested to me, I picked up the Sanwa JLWs as these are basically Japanese sticks made to fit in an American cabinet. Unfortunately, they are more of a “Sanwa’s take on an American stick”, and so Japanese stick users don’t like it as it’s too American, and American stick users don’t like it as it’s too Japanese.
The continued Prelude and thought process leading to this should people be interested in the wall of text:
[details=Spoiler]After that failed attempt I was looking into either having to do woodwork or metalwork. I have little to no experience routing wood, let alone welding metal. Really it felt too cumbersome. The best thing I found at the time was to route out the wood that’s touching the metal CP so that I can reverse bolt the JLF plate to the wood. A very plausible solution, so I ordered some JLFs to measure them out. Once receiving them however, I realized the problems I’d be in. Unfortunately the JLFs are too small of a mounting plate as the bolt corner holes don’t even expand past the already existing woodwork. This means that (1) I would need to woodwork the entire Wooden part of the CP, and (2) The smaller space would mean I would never be able to add an American joystick should I need to somewhere down the future. This just frustrated me.
So I in turn, in anger, just started dismantling the shitty JLWs I was tossing away - saving parts if I needed them in the future. Then, while I removed their mounting plates I realized it: I may not be able to mount the JLFs to the wood or metal panel, but what’s stopping me from mounting the JLFs to the JLW mounting plate, then mount the JLW plate to the metal CP as it’s already designed to fit? Short answer: Nothing.[/details]
So basically, or fortunately (take your pick), the corner holes of a JLF mounting plate fit directly overtop of the slanted holes for a JLW mounting plate. You can fit a JLW’s corner holes right into the default pre-made prongs of an American CP. So, just find a screw or bolt with a flat enough head (the bigger the head, the more distance you’re creating between the metal CP and the JLF) and bolt the JLF to the JLW mounting plate. I believe it was a thread size of #6. You want a flat head bolt as that’s going to be up against, pressured on, the metal CP. Getting a rounded bolt would put too much pressure on one point against the sheet and you could damage the sheet if you overtighten too much. Additionally it could cause unwanted shifting of the stick.
Oh, and don’t worry about anything affecting the throw of the JLF. The JLF’s throw distance is shorter than the throw hole of the JLW’s mounting bracket and CP, so there is no restriction put on the JLF’s throw distance as the JLF itself will stop on its own throw distance before ever coming near the JLW’s distance.
This whole process saves you from doing any metal or wood work to your American cabinet.
You can buy the JLW mounting bracket from LizardLick here.
Pics of the JLF & JLW mounting brackets:
[details=Spoiler]JLF:
http://www.norrisarcadesticks.com/images/sanwa_jlf.jpg
JLW:
[/details]
Pics of the finished process:
Spoiler
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Arcade/2011-11-08_07-46-51_897.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Arcade/2011-11-08_07-47-17_708.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Arcade/2011-11-08_07-46-41_882.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Arcade/2011-11-08_07-46-33_533.jpg
Pics of the JLF installed onto the CP:
