Eaton type switch
On this page Philippe Vanagt explains how he made his Eaton type "look-a-like" switch-hats.
Upload new attachment "korry-switch.jpg"
Using a molding procedure we can recreate the look of this Eaton type of switch quite easely. First we prepare a mold made of some simple materials like wood.
Upload new attachment "korry-switch-proto.jpg"
Step by step shown here: first we take a board (wood or whatever) on top of that we glue a piec of plastic that is +/- 1mm thick. We give it the size 16mm * 16mm. Then we glue around that pieces of wood or any other material such that we create a square around it with an inner size of 18mm * 18mm (thus leaving 1mm on each side). Next step is a same squared shape of 20mm * 20mm. The height of the first square should be the height of your panels (I took 6mm). The height of the second square should be 1 or 2mm.
Now we make a mixture of 50% component A, 50% component B polyurethaan plastic which we pour into the mold. After we give it time to become hard we break the whole thing so we can take the plastic molded part out. Now we take a dremel or a normal drill and make a holl of 5mm into it. This is where the LED will go trough. On the front side of the switch-hat we make the holl bigger in an elips shape. This way the entire word on the index will be lit.
Korry type switches have 2 leds and 2 words. Most of the time it is "ON" or "OFF" (bottom) and "FAULT" (top). You could drill 2 holls for a double index as in real but that depends on if you can get the "fault" variable out of FS and into your hardware. Otherwise you will waste a LED for nothing. (if it never illuminates or isn't interfacable it's wasted).
Next step is to make a silicone mold of this prototype switch-hat. Now you can make as many switch-hats as you want. What I will do is make 10 hats and then make a new mold of those 10. Then using this new mold I can make 10 hats each time I mix polyurethane. In no time you will have 100 of these done.
Upload new attachment "korry-switch-molded.jpg"
Upload new attachment "korry-switch-mold.jpg"
Once they are finished all left to do is spray-paint them black and cut a 16*16mm plastic "window". Then print an index (black background, white text "ON" or "OFF" or whatever) and cut it to 16*16mm. Glue the index inside the switch and close the switch-hat by gluing the plastic window on top of the index.
Upload new attachment "korry-plain.jpg"
Upload new attachment "korry-black.jpg"
Upload new attachment "korry-window.jpg"
Upload new attachment "korry-switch-window2.jpg"
Now we make panels to fit behind the panels. In these "back-panels" we will mount our switches. These can be real cheep & simple PCB-switches or push buttons (mounted on perfboard if you like). Next thing to do is fit the back-panels to the real panels. Making sure the push buttons just rest against the switch-hats. Now if we press on the switch-hat, the switch-hat will press the switch or push button.
The gap made in the visible planels should be 18.5mm * 18.5mm idealy. 19mm will do too but is a bit spacy.
Sorry for the bad quality pictures. I hope to take new ones as soon as I get to my digital camera. These have been taken with a simple webcam.
If anyone wants to get hold of anything like one of these switch-hats (to make your own mold from it and make your own switch-hats) or a mold (o make your own switch-hats) .. pls contact me: pvanagt -ad- belgacom -dot- net