Hal,

I can tell, another engineer, and with more imagination than me. I can picture it immediately.
And it is a piece of jewelry. It could be functional and beautiful. It would have to be pretty tough though. The pin going through the body of the instrument could provide substantial support. The bearing at the fulcrum point would have to be pretty substantial to keep the mechanism from twisting. Great idea, great start. Jerry

Your best bet would probably be to get your hands on a set of oversized buttons. Some of the more independent builders use buttons that they make themselves out of the little metal caps on the bottom of furniture feet. Some are bigger than others. Quite frankly, I have a difficult time playing an accordion that is fitted with these because my hands are big and the buttons scraped the sides of my other fingers. Maybe Jude might know where to find a set. You could even go down to Home Depot, get some caps yourself and glue them over the existing buttons.