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Translucent Microswitch Buttons **www.fxbuttons.com**
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Xiaou2:

 Well,  I think that the clear plastics arnt good to use the
happs style holder - as its more prone to cracking.

  I also  personally would like a slightly smaller button than the
happs.  Not much, but just a tad.

  Ability to interface leaf and micros would be a huge plus.

 I just took the plunge and purchased a metal cutting lathe a short while ago  (9x20 -harbor freight)... however,  Im not yet knowledgable  on how to use it.
If/when i do... i will try to make custom buttons.   Hopefully out of clear plastic dowels... but not sure how well it will work that way.

 Btw - the current leaf styles have too long a throw.  I think this detracts from thier look and feel. (button top sticks up way too far)

RayB:

--- Quote from: tetsujin on January 24, 2005, 01:46:09 pm ---it seems as though one could build a microswitch housing to fit these buttons, right?

--- End quote ---

Damn! That's some brilliant "outside the box" thinking there dude!
Such a holder would only need to be made in one generic color since it's not visible!!!

OK let's see who gets to the patent office first...   ;D
tetsujin:

--- Quote from: RayB on January 24, 2005, 02:33:22 pm ---
--- Quote from: tetsujin on January 24, 2005, 01:46:09 pm ---it seems as though one could build a microswitch housing to fit these buttons, right?

--- End quote ---

Damn! That's some brilliant "outside the box" thinking there dude!
--- End quote ---

Well, the idea might not be so brilliant if
1: it won't work, or
2: the supply of translucent leaf-switches dries up.  (This seems like a distinct possibility...)

But it seems like it should work, and given the apparent lack of translucent buttons in the style I want...  (though this project seems to indicate that Wico used to carry them...) it might at least be a good temporary fix.  Having never even examined a leaf-style arcade button firsthand I can only speculate at the moment, and I'm still trying to figure out how I'd light the thing.  But I figure it's worth my time and money to try it.

If this bit with custom-manufacturing translucent buttons works out, though, I'm so there...
shawnzilla:
Out of curiosity, does anyone know who is the actual manufacturer of leaf-switch buttons? Is it actually WICO?
RandyT:

--- Quote from: RayB on January 24, 2005, 02:33:22 pm ---
--- Quote from: tetsujin on January 24, 2005, 01:46:09 pm ---it seems as though one could build a microswitch housing to fit these buttons, right?

--- End quote ---

Damn! That's some brilliant "outside the box" thinking there dude!
Such a holder would only need to be made in one generic color since it's not visible!!!

OK let's see who gets to the patent office first...   ;D


--- End quote ---

Heh.  I went down this road once already, but in the other direction.

The end result is, you still need to have an expensive injection mold made if you go with plastic, not to mention do all the engineering.

I tried the metal route, but without making stampings by the thousands (also tooling charges apply) you couldn't make an adapter for less than $3 each.  It's a hard sell to convince someone they need a $3 adapter to make $1 button do what they want and that's with a 0% profit margin :)

Some things just need to be done big if you want to do them at all.  Unfortunately, I face this every time I have an idea, and that ultimately ends up limiting what can be offered.  Point in case....Just spent $2500 for a custom run of parts that I have no idea will sell because I needed to make minimum orders or the manufacturer would have nothing to do with me.  Oh, and based on what I wanted, even that was a "favor" :P

RandyT


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