In any case, after the hallucinations stopped I focused on drilling the button holes. The formica had been cut in the shape of a rectangle six or more inches larger than the plywood top in every direction and applied with the nasty toxic happy-glue described above. The first step in opening the holes involved laying the control panel formica-side down on a piece of scrap plywood and drilling roughly 5/8" holes in the center of the existing button holes with a spade bit. Doing this from the back against wood helps prevent any splitting of the formica surface and makes the hole necessary for the router bit to be inserted from the front.

One at a time, I used the router to buzz out the formica that covered the button and joystick holes. You more or less let the router do the work and don't force it since it will have a tendency to eat right into the plywood and actually make the holes larger. Light pressure and fast movement is the way to do it.

I also had to run the router around the entire perimeter of the control panel to trim the rectangular formica piece to the shape of the panel itself.

Here is the panel freshly surfaced and routed just prior to installation of the controls.
(click to enlarge)

It was fine that the formica was less than perfect looking around the somewhat lumpy holes. Every one of the openings is completely covered by a bezel or overhang around the buttons and mounting plates, so I didn't waste a lot of time trying to be a perfectionist.

Surfacing of the facing below the top of the control panel followed a similar process to the one described above. Pieces slightly larger than the actual underlying wood were toxically and odorously glued on and then routed off to conform.

The next step took a couple of evenings: wiring.