Since getting a new main stick, I have been using my T.16000m as a side stick / button box on my left side, next to my throttle.
The T.16000m is in principle an ambidextrous stick: depending on which hunks of rubber you put on it, it can be either left- or right handed.
But after many years, I have a problem:
I CANNOT GET THE RIGHT-HANDED SUPPORT OFF.
The stupidest part of this is that the ‘support’ is just a part I literally put in there. No click, no snap, no glue, nothing to hold it in place… And yet it won’t come out now. The other side, the one that doesn’t protrude outwards and annoy when holding it with my left hand, does come off. Easily of course…
The problem part, still attached, and the one I want to replace it with
Now recently I have been loaning this stick to my left-handed girlfriend for Elite: Dangerous and I thought this time I would finally get the annoying thumb rest off. I don’t care anymore if I have to destroy it, I just want to have both sides smooth with no thumb rest.
The left-handed thumb rest. This to show what the internals of our resistant rubber friend look like
So after stripping the rubber fully off of the plastic part, I tried to wedge screwdrivers between the thumb rest and the stick. I managed to get the lower of the three attachments loose, but there was just no way to get anything (knife or screwdriver) between them at the top, where the other attachment pieces are.
Then I thought I could just go at it with a drill and/or knife to tear away at the plastic until I could peel out or sand off the remainder.
But I discovered something terrible… The inner part of this thumb rest is metal!
I don’t have a proper workshop with strong tools, just a handheld drill and some basic tools. Any ideas or shall I just snap this piece back in place and glue the rubber part back on?
