Hi, I’m trying to create shaft covers for my Seimitsu ls-32s. For people who have done this before, what materials did you use? Where could I buy them. Is it possible to hollow out JLF shaft covers? If so, what type of drill bits would I need?
Mod the JLF shaft covers… Get official JLF-CD kits or the Mad Catz colored versions. I think the Qanba JLF shaft cover kits that Focus Attack sells should work, too, since Qanba pretty much uses JLF for 85% of its joysticks. (The other 10-15% of Qanbas are being equipped now with LS-32’s based on customer requests for alternate control levers.)
Mad Catz and Qanba both make alternate color shaft kits for the JLF that should work with the LS-32 after the mod. I prefer the standard black Sanwa kit, myself, since it works with every color combination but at least alternate colors are available. (** I would NOT recommend white shaft covers since about half the white plastic on the market yellows after being exposed to sunlight after long periods of time. The only way to ensure white plastic doesn’t yellow is to store it in a box away from the sun 24/7! ** You’d be better off spray-painting a black shaft cover kit with a stable, non-yellowing white if you want the color that badly.) The Qanba kits are cheaper than what Mad Catz sells BUT the Mad Catz kits may match the Sanwa button colors better than Qanba’s.
*** Your other option available is to get ahold of RosserRooster… He makes customized shaft covers AND dust covers for both the JLF and LS-32 joysticks. His shaft covers are mostly metal-based (aluminum? If that’s the case, it shouldn’t corrode/rust) and colored in whatever colors he has available… He might have other materials in stock for customization. I think he’s even doing wood shaft covers now, too. His work is excellent and people have been very satisfied with his product for quite a while now. ***
The existing JLF-CD shaft kits (Sanwa, Mad Catz, Qanba) are the only covers that will fit the LS-32 after modding. Unfortunately, the shaft covers for the LS-40, LS-55, LS-56, LS-58 are just too thin to begin with to fit the LS-32.
I don’t know of a drill bit that will work for the JLF-CD shaft kit to be honest. I’ve got standard drill bits, myself, and NONE of them seem to be sized for a JLF-type shaft cover. Forget about the trick Akihabarashop shows on YouTube… That only works for the Seimitsu shaft covers for thin stick shafts!
You’re NOT hollowing out the JLF shaft cover, btw. You’re THINNING it from the inside out to fit the LS-32 shaft. I use small metal files to thin out the JLF shaft from the inside. You use a coarse circular file to thin the shaft cover by at least half the starting thickness and then smooth out the interior with a fine file. AFTER the shaft is thinned out, you have to cut it down to size to fit because the LS-32 shaft is physically shorter than the JLF shaft. I forget how much you have to cut down but it’s somewhere between 1/8" and 3/8" but definitely less than a 1/4". You can use a large medium tooth file or coarse flat file to cut down the height OR a Dremel with a circular cutter. Make sure you mark the approximate amount of height to cut off before you actually Dremel or file down the shaft cover. I use a Silver Sharpee marker to hilite the approximate cut-off area.
(I take my time with the Dremel and have only had one accident that was easily fixable with a spare, screwed up shaft. I just cut off a small band of shaft and fit it underneath a larger piece so that it was out of sight. Works fine and I don’t notice it so that I don’t freak out with my compulsive perfectionist streak.)
I’ve modded around 5 JLF-CD kits this way to fit the LS-32’s I own…
This JLF shaft mod should also work for the “short shaft” Zippy joystick, too. That joystick is a cheaper, virtual clone of the LS-32. (It’s something I’ll buy on the horizon since it can be modded with a “silent microswitch” kit that Paradise Arcade Shop sells.)
I don’t see an edit function available but I was going to say Mad Catz charges $5.00 plus shipping for their JLF-CD kits. Standard price for the Qanba JLF shaft cover kits is $2.95 plus shipping. Focus Attack is selling a few Qanba colors 20 cents off right now…
JLF-CD is just Sanwa vernacular for their JLF shaft cover, dustcover (sized for a JLF shaft + shaft cover) parts. Of course, if you later want to buy a customized dustcover for a shaft-covered LS-32 you choose the dustcover size for the shaft-covered JLF. (RosserRooster and Art Hong both sell customized dustcovers.)
Thank you so much for your help. Your answer had a lot of detail, which helps.
One of these days, I guess I should do a video demo with the tools I use to make customized shafts from the JLF-CD kits.
Of course, that depends on me having spare coinage to spend on parts! I’ve got too many stick cases that need control levers and am probably at getting at least 2-4 more LS-32-01’s plus a mix of 2-3 LS-40-01’s, an LS-58-01 or LS-56-01, and a Korean Crown (new style) control lever. At least eight replacement levers there.
Not a JLF fan… Too loose to begin with and with so many issues (not fast enough for many tap-tap dash moves, slow recentering, slower response on older fighters and 2-D shooters, generally more difficult to find diagonals on and do charge-back moves) that it gets to be more hassle than it’s worth to mod them to my likes. With all the threads about special mods and custom replacement parts ==> (shakes head) ==> More work than I want to do!
Not exactly eager to get new joysticks with that much of a backlog in mod work/replacement parts on existing stick cases…
This shaft part mod is not hard. Takes under an hour, really. You do it a few times, it’ll take 45-48 minutes tops even if you’re anal-retentive. Where you have to be most careful is shaving the JLF cover shaft to fit the height of the LS-32. You also have to be careful on the inner wall filing of the shaft cover. The reason I do this by hand is that it would be way to easy to destroy that plastic with a powered tool and/or hurt yourself. Like I said, I couldn’t even find a drill bit you could rotate by hand to cut thin out the JLF shaft cover. Everything I have is too small or too big; I lucked out getting a cheap metal file set years ago and this has proved to be very useful for joystick mod work. More control with a fine metal file, too.
Its rarely done now, but I seen people use the pen caps of thin Crayola markers cut to size to be promptitude shaft covers.
The Marker body can also be used, keep in mind it never be a perfect fit.
I have also seen people cut the aluminum 7 Eleven Slurpy straws down to make shaft covers
Hurm…
As a thought, wouldn’t simple heatshrink make a budget shaft cover?
I remember when GeorgeC sent me a longer PM about this whole matter. 
good stuff.
sort-of-=related, I know it’s not exactly the same, but what ever happened to all the “LS-36” mods (or whatever that was called)? did people drop htis option due to some performance issues?
A Lack of mods do not mean a lack of performance, If the joystick works fine as a stock joystick, why mod it?
I seen more mods for Sanwa JLF joysticks than ANYTHING else. Maybe JLFs are that bad, maybe they are flexible, and just maybe there more JLF mods because more people have JLF joysticks as default on their arcade sticks.
well in this case, it was sort of the ‘solution’ about the LS-32 shaft cover problem, using an LS-40 shaft + shaftcover (and pivot, bearing etc) on an LS-32 body… I know people have tried it but for some reason nobody has mentioned about it for a while.
performance issues i meant was for this mod itself. I can’t find the thread about it now too lol, but i remember some guys getting issues with diagonals though.
then again it wasn’t the best solution perse, considering you’d have to go out your way and buy more parts/two joysticks for that.