You said you work at a mine as an oiler. You should be able to get all the dimensions you need from your company's engineering or maintenance dept. IF THEY WILL LET YOU. maybe you can say it's advertising to the company.
I see the joysticks Tom linked. Like I said earlier; I don't know much about this stuff. I do know there is lots more available these days than when I started out. Maybe this stuff is heavy duty enough to handle a large duty cycle. Depending on how big you're machine will be, remember it's going to have to work very hard handling a bucket full of dirt swinging 10feet way. Thats the case for me. Each bucket weighs about 12-15lbs and with my overkill in my electrics, there is never any overheating whatsoever.