Lefty,
Thanks for the quick answer. I think I might just pursue that route. My drilling skill with a dremel is pretty basic without a Dremel drill press stand. So if I drill a hole on the top cover of a project box, then do the panel mounting with a small PCB, I could then wire wrap the small PCB to my main logic board. Easy enough. If I did 3 buttons layout (up/down/enter) instead, I bet I'll mess up the last hole LOL