SHMUPS.COM!
Do you like the feel of the Sanwa JLW and the fact it uses easily replaceable lever-action microswitches (not to mention Sanwa's reputation for making quality products) but dislike it's long-arse throw, which of course makes it hard to make those quick, precise movements required by high-end shmups players such as yourself (or even crap ones such as myself)?
And do you love shitty ghetto mods that don't deserve their own thread, but hate the added friction you get when using the standard, well known electrical tape/heat shrink actuator-expansion mods?
WELL HAVE I GOT THE UNBELIEVABLY CHEAP AND SHITTY MOD FOR YOU!
OK so I spent the week scouring the local hardware shops for something to shorten the throw/actuation length of my JLW, since it was so hard to... well, like I said above. I'd initially settled on buying a nylon olive (39c) and sanding it to size, but then I spotted this stuff in the gardening section:
If you can't read the label, it says '13mm x 1m pre-cut poly pipe'. It's rigid (unlike the tape/heatshrink mods mentioned above) and fits perfectly over the end of the JLW's actuator and was much smaller than the olive, so I figured I might not even have to sand it at all. This ended up being wrong but there you go. It cost $1.50 from a place called Banner Hardware ($AUD).
Anyway I took it home and cut a chunk to size, more or less, using a cheap serrated knife (like, $1 from The Reject Shop) to saw through. It was surprisingly easy to make a reasonably smooth cut; just don't rush it like I did (I have one raggedy arse and one good edge). It will fit easily over the actuator but by default the throw will be too short to activate the switches.
(I have such pretty hands. I can never go to prison)
Now, you could wrap a bit of electrical tape around the fat end of the actuator (the part that actually presses the switches) or even bend the levers into a shallow V shape so they're activated earlier, but I opted to sand it down. If you'd rather sand too, I strongly recommend you use a coarse grade of paper, as this took abso-fucking-lutely ages to do with my fine sandpaper.
After some experimentation, best and quickest results were had by coarsening the poly pipe with sandpaper then using a straight-bladed knife to shave some more off (the knife will make a very smooth finish on the pipe; the coarse finish left by the paper will stop the blade from slipping easily). Rinse and repeat.
If you don't have a lathe or whatever, but still want a reasonably smooth and even finish, you can do what I did to make this step a bit easier: wrap some tape around a reasonably thick drillbit. I used book repair tape I stole from my old job, since I couldn't find my electrical tape (again).
Put enough on so it's a tight fit when you put the pipe piece on there, otherwise it'll slide around in irritating fashion. With everything in place I wrapped a leftover rubber upholstery strap around the trigger of my cordless drill so I could use both hands to hold the knife/sandpaper in place (if you don't have any upholstery strip stuff lying around, the cheapest option would be to rip some hair out of your girlfriend/wife's head. Or some string or some shit). I sat down, clamped the drill between my thighs and got to work - this step was highly symbolic, of course, but not uncomfortable.
Anyway sanding took fucking forever like I said and I ended up having to bend one of the microswitch levers anyway since it was being recalcitrant and I was getting pretty frustrated by that point, but, it works now so there's that.
The only real disadvantage to this mod is that the pipe will slip off the actuator during play unless you secure it with a little bit of glue. I used hot glue since I had some lying around but super glue can be had from discount shops for like $1 so that would probably work too. This makes the mod a little more permanent than I'd hoped but lol at the idea of me playing fighting games so who really cares. I could have roughened the pipe interior/actuator as well so the increased friction would hold them together better but I didn't think of that 'til this morning and it probably wouldn't have worked very well anyway, so, y'know, but anyone else who attempts this mod (yeah right) could give it a try and report back I guess.
I was also a little saddened by the fact I couldn't find anything to put over the fat end of the actuator (if you forgot, that's the part that actually presses the switches).
Here's some pictures:
Before:
After:
(nb. you can laugh at my lunch box stick if you want)
Oh and here's a picture of my stick, since that's what this thread is for:
dat wiring
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