GAMERS BEWARE! NO CONTROLLER IS SAFE!

One day you could be happily playing your games console then go to sleep and in the morning BAM! two of your buttons are gone and your friend has a new pair of earrings that look suspiciously like your missing buttons! *

I would love to say this Instructable came to me while I was sitting a top a mountain meditating on the meaning of life but I'll be honest it came to me while walking around my room looking for ways to use ninety earring findings. Alas that is not what this Instructables led me to. After making these and and my Lego Head Earrings I have decided to make small collection of earrings that are instantly noticeable and that set of a wide range of thoughts and memories about the past.

* I do not condone the stealing of controllers even to make my projects!

Step 1: What You Will Need

You Will Need:
2 Part Epoxy Glue- From a pound/dollar store
Clear Nail Varnish- Also from a pound/dollar store
Some means of cutting and filing plastic and removing screws- I used a exacto knife and a full size metal file but you could use a multi-tool as pictured.
Earring Findings- I use 4mm but anything up to around 8mm will work.
An Old Games Console Controller- Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo 64 etc.

Step 2: Dismantling the Controller

Two ways to do this next part:

The Clean Way (How I Did It)
Every part of this way is documented in the pictures.
Step 1- Remove the six screws from the back of the controller (I think The Hulk must have got community service for destroying the city at Sony tightening screws, as one took ages to budge)
Step 2-Remove the sneaky little screw in the circuit board that my screwdriver is pointing to in picture two
Step 3- Remove the circuit board and back and front leaving yourself with the triangle, circle, square and X buttons.

I've always wanted to have a kite that was controlled by analog sticks like the ones in the Playstation 2 controller but that's not my area of expertise and totally off subject. Back to the action.

The Messy Way
Step 1- Attack the controller with a hammer breaking it into pieces
Step 2- Take the above mentioned four buttons

It's your choice

Step 3: Preparing the Buttons

As you can see in the first picture and right in front of your eyes the buttons are horribly bulky. We must fix this.

How I Removed The Excess Plastic:
Step 1: Shave pieces of plastic off using your blade, like when you cant find a sharpener and sharpen a pencil with a knife, until you have about three mm of plastic left.
Step 2: File the piece down flat another mm until it is 2 mm thick

A Faster and Probably More Efficient Alternative:
Step 1: Use a hacksaw to cut the piece to 3mm
Step 2: File the piece down to a 2mm thickness

Once again totally your choice!

Step 4: Varnishing

Optional But Recommended

If you have quick dry nail varnish this will obviously be quicker for you.
My way of getting the buttons nice and shiny is five coats of varnish applied lightly.

IMPORTANT
It is crucial that the varnish drys properly between coats otherwise one coat will mix with the previous semi-dry coat and it will go streaky . I was told by a friend that if you press the back of your nail against the varnish and it leaves a mark it is not dry and this method seems to work.

If you are in a hurry two thin coats then one thick coat will occasionally give satisfactory results but I don't recommend it.

Step 5: Attaching

Wait until your varnish is totally dry to do this step. There should be a little circular mark on the coloured piece on the inside of the button. This is the centre and is where you are going to stick the post.

Mix the two parts of the epoxy glue in equal measures. I prefer to dip the flat part of the the earring post into the glue but you could apply it using a toothpick or something like that.

Place the glued posts on the circular mark and leave to dry as shown in picture 2

Member mom123: suggested crazy glue for this part so you could try that!

Step 6: The Finished Product

There you go! You now have your very own Playstation Earrings! Enjoy!

All that's left to do now is to thank you for your time and notify you that more jewelry will be coming up very soon.

Thank You

Ross