Well, now I'm thinking of using a MIDI Fighter for the 16 arcade button section. That will add 4 digital and 4 analog channels and free up the 16 channels on the UMC32 that were going to be used for the buttons. Any thoughts?

Would it be to hard to fab a top plate out of wood hardboard for the MIDI Fighter and LED light tubes with just a hand drill??? I'm considering FrontPanelExpress.com, but, I just added $125 to the total price if I do go the MIDI fighter route. I just thought it may be nice to have some LED feedback on button or effect states and whatnot.

Anyone ever used a resistive touch screen on a DIY controller? Any suggestions, tips, etc? Also, how to deal with analog components that don't vary exactly from 0 Ohms up to a max value?

i.e. with a 3 pin potentiometer, when turned all the way to the left, there is still resistance between pin 1 and 2 and/or when turned all the way to the right there is still resistance between pins 2 and 3? This would create a situation where you possibly couldn't get down to a totally 0 CC value and/or up to a max 127 CC value...