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Translucent Microswitch Buttons*Taking Pre-Orders*

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Chris:


--- Quote from: RayB on July 07, 2005, 11:49:54 am ---Sounds like this board is full of perfectionists...

--- End quote ---
Yes.

thetered:


--- Quote from: RayB on July 07, 2005, 11:49:54 am ---Sounds like this board is full of perfectionists...


--- End quote ---

I agree, but hey atleast they are doing the hard part for the rest of us   :D

But after hearing all this, I'm glad I decided to just go with the color buttons, cause I didn't have any of these problems.


Oh ya and I think ANY kind of colored paint on top or bottom of a clear button will do two things, one look ugly and two defeat the purpose of buying clear buttons....

gl.tter:

Haven't got my clears (waiting on the 2nd order), but how about cutting out a disc of inkjet printer backlight film and gluing that under the plunger with clear glue?

Never used it myself, but the film is white-ish but translucent enough to allow the light through.

RandyT:


--- Quote from: Chris on July 07, 2005, 08:43:09 am ---You had no luck with frosted coatings?  Were you trying them on the inside of the plunger?

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I tried some Krylon "frosted glass" paint.  It was a little old, but I think it was still good.  Almost impossible to apply it properly in the small area there is to work in.

General comment on the frosted materials:  Most require special application methods that aren't possible to adhere to when working on the inside of the plunger.

The other challenge is making a coating look uniform.  Unlit, it is usually fine.  Light it up and it looks bad.

Acetone:  First tried nail polish remover (don't tell the boss! :) )  Dumped it in, swished it around for about 5 seconds with a cotton swab,  then dumped it out.  Looked great, even better when lit.  5-minutes later, it was mostly clear again and a little sticky.  Then tried hardware store acetone and started seeing really weird sub-surface "inclusions" in the plastic, manifesting itself as a solid white mass.  In other words, something bad was happening to the structure of the plastic itself, beyond what was happening at the surface.  Shortly afterwards, the legs of the plunger became weak and broke off.

The disc idea might work (I actually suggested that in an earlier thread), but it might be difficult to cut the discs perfectly.  The springs might wreak havoc on the material as well, unless it's fairly durable.

I'm sure there's a solution, but I've spent about $30 to date on different things to try without finding one, so I'm giving it rest for a bit (at least until I have an epiphany :) )

RandyT

gl.tter:


--- Quote from: RandyT on July 07, 2005, 02:28:38 pm ---The disc idea might work (I actually suggested that in an earlier thread), but it might be difficult to cut the discs perfectly.
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