30mm arcade screw-in pushbutton

thingiverse

An arcade pushbutton that fits 30mm holes commonly found in arcade cabinets or arcade game controllers. The buttons consist of 4 pieces and they use keyboard microswitches (normal thickness, not slim). I bent the pins on the switches and soldered some wires straight into the pins. Then I ran the wires through the small holes at the bottom of the housing part for a clean look. Pushing the switch to the bottom required a little bit of force but once it snaps in it stays there securely. These buttons work best when the thickness of the panel of the controller is 6.5mm or less. 8mm is probably around the absolute maximum. When assembled these buttons are less than 20mm in thickness so they can be fitted into very thin enclosures. When assembling the button but the top-part through the hole in your controller's panel and loosely rotate the ring around it. Do not tighten it yet as the tabs the ring is screwed into are somewhat fragile. Insert the button cap and then screw in the bottom part. Tighten the bottom part and the ring. The bottom part has 2 holes which match with the studs in the part created from tool.stl. This tool can be used when tightening the bottom part. Once all the parts are tightened the button should stay firmly in place and the pieces are supporting each other so the construction is solid. The button cap and bottom part have grooves for a 22mm spring if you want to make the buttons stiffer. However the switch should be enough on its own. How do they feel in use? I think they're bit louder than the commercial arcade buttons I've used and they have that little bit of "crunchiness" when the sides of the button cap slide against the walls of the housing. The printing lines can be felt so the overall feel is not as smooth as with the injection molded commercial buttons. Despite this issue I'd still call these playable. Update 31/07/2021: I added a cap-v2.stl which is a lighter version of the button cap. The only difference is that the inside of the button cap is more hollowed out which results into a slightly different feel and sound profile. In my opinion the v2 feels better in use (although it might also be the result of using different filament and 0.12 layer height instead of 0.20).