>The diagram looks like it could turn out really nice.  You could
> probably even backlight some of these buttons as well.  I might
> just do something like this for a car project I've been thinking
> about...

It's a bit of an effort to make it look nice but it's worth it. (I
should have mentioned that any routing or drilling should be
done through a piece of scrap to avoid splintering the hole
edges). The thing I like about this method is that it's flexible
when it comes to materials, could probably be done
economically in a production run (if the product warranted
it), and a one-off is easy to do at home. When you get right
down to it, sometimes "off-the-shelf plastic" just isn't tasty
enough. Making the insides work is just the start, there's
aesthetics too. Have a look around Bryan Mumford's site
www.bmumford.com , which has a better collection of pics
than I have of wood+electronics. There are some excellent
ideas to be had if you have a wander around the web looking
out for horologists (seemingly where art meets science most
often), automatons and long-forgotten gizmos such as those
wacky Victorian medical contraptions at antiquities museums.
It's not that long ago that hand-made was the norm. Wanna
be impressed ?

http://homestead.com/bikerodnkustom/woodeye.html

Backlighting is an option especially if you use clear perspex.
You could have a different colour for each button, flash them,
strobe them etc. I have one drawn up that will use dark wood
buttons against light wood panel. I'm thinking of making the
buttons 10mm diameter, which is wide enough to drill through
and insert a round flat-top LED. If you can't turn your own wood
you could use dowel and stick veneer on the end or paint it

(and a link to Nixie tube clocks re: another thread)

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~wwl/mikesclocks.html

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.