I already bought the 3/4. but I’ll just get 3/8 so I can bottom mount it. I’m not going to use the 34, to top mount.
if you top mount it doesn’t matter how thick it is unless your concern is the buttons.
Yeah Himura just told me I have the screw type, so i guess it’s 3/8s then. I just hope it’s strong enough. At least i don’t have to top mount it now.
3/8’s MDF should be plenty strong as long as you use it in small sheets. But it won’t be thick enough to counter sink your bolts very easily so they will have to be showing on top of the plexi. If you already have the 3/4 MDF board I would recommend going ahead and just using that. It really isn’t hard to top mount the joystick and buttons. And by using the thicker wood you can put the bolts under the plexi.
Yeah the thing is, I’m setting up a sit down style arcade setup. I’m not sure 3/8s is strong enough. I don’t worry about the wood. I work for HD so I can get wood free by purposely fucking it up, or getting scraps or some shit. And the screw type will fit in the 3/4?
The screw type will fit in 1/4" wood with plexi. If you use the 3/4" wood then you will need to use a router to rout out the wood around the buttons so that it is only 1/4" thick. If you don’t have a router you could use a wood chisel to take off 1/4" from the top and use a piece of 1/4" MDF to mount the buttons in a similar way to which you top mount the joystick.
Spiffy, draw me up an example or show me something so that i can learn how to countersink bolts. i just do not understand, but i dont want my bolts to show. PLEASE!!!
To counter sink your bolts when bottom mounting you just drill holes in the wood to sink the bolts into. For top mounting when your routing out on top to make the plate flush, you just make it deep enough so the bolts are flush also.
Cool. Thanks Spiffy. Its all becoming clear now. Excellent artwork.
Flash Sanwas
Just a question thats possibly been answered in another thread. Is top mounting an optical sanwa in 3/4 wood any different than normal sanwas? Is it possible?
It is the same as mounting regular sanwa JLF’s. The optical Sanwas don’t come with a mounting plate though if you are ordering from Himuragames be sure to ask for one. They do come with an octagonal gate though and the 5 pin connector so you don’t need to order those.
How bad would it be to bottom mount the stick and buttons on 3/8 wood? Would it be strong enuff to withstand “normal” play?
It should be strong enough. But like I said before if you bottom mount on 3/8 wood you can’t really counter sink your bolts. So they would be showing on top of the plexi.
I have a Sanwa JLW stick top mounted in wood and 6 clip in buttons. Basically, I’m not really happy with the shaft length and would like to lower it for comforts sake as well as make a more clean and smooth wooden box. I had some general questions before I start. First off, I need to know what type of wood will give me the best finish. I want to use hardwood oak that I have lying around, but will I be able to paint it okay. MDF seems very shitty as it gets nasty on the edges after cutting (something only texture molding seems to help). Also, what type of paint/primer should I use to get a really nice matte finish, I want it to feel like formica or even some sort of counter top. I’m guessing I’ll just use wood screws for it all. I have a really inventive way of mounting this things that’s fairly complicated, but I think it will work out nicely and I’ll post pictures when I’m all finished.
Thanks
Thanks Spiffy. Gonna start building my sanwa flash this weekend. I’ll take a feel of the 3/8 wood and then decide on top or bottom mount. Thanks for the help 
I just got the JLF’s that I order from himuragames. My question is that it looks to me that the micro are solder to the pcb,but what i do see is that it has five pins out. I don’t know if someone has ask this or not,but can i just solder to those pins straight up.Is my first time with a sanwa so i dunno. i have done american switches but not a jap stick. If not i guess i can do it old style and solder to each micro but the pins would save me time and hassle…
another questions that i have is that how to you spiffy and armd… hold the pcbs to the board and how u keep your wire so clean i’m afraid that the damn solder might come off the pcb and it migth screw the whole thing. So i’m dabeting the dimensions and i’m thinking of making 3 additional inches all around so that i would have room for the pcb. I really wanna make a clean job not a spider web if you guys know what i mean…
and by anychance does anyone know the a template of japanes buttons configuration… since the jap and short (the first two buttons) are alittle bit lower is throwing me off like jap arcades,or namcos,or hiros stickand i dont know how much lower they are, but if noone knows i guess i’ll make it to fit confortable with my hand… :tup: on the projects u guys make and i wanna make something half decent like everyone in here…
thanks to anyone that helps me out…
So basically your saying that i can’t solder to the five pins on the sanwa then.Oh, well i guess i have to do it like soldering a competion stick. I just thought that i would save my self time by doing it the five pin way…looks nice and neat the way you clean up after the job. Looks like you screw the pcb to the wall and u put all the wires to some little tube and zip’s…thank alot
:tup:
X44
He’s probably not saying that because you can. It’s easier if you could find a five prong plug. When soldering to them, it’s harder to avoid the wires form touching each other when they are so close. It’s your decision.
If you notice there are some points where the prongs are soldered to the PCB. It’s easier to solder there then it is to solder to the actual prongs themselves. And yeah, I use screws to mount the PCB to the side of the box and cable ties to orgonize my wires, same as Armad1ll0.
Just posting pics of the Sanwa stick I’ve been working on. It’s based on the blueprint from Darkside’s site. Since he’s not building sticks anymore I figured I would try building the case.
It’s sanwa stick and pushbuttons mounted on 3/4 inch wood with lexan. It didn’t come out perfect, but the next one I build, the case should come out nicer. Only thing left is to put in the pcb, start and select buttons on the side, and to do the soldering.
