PL Series II Push Button Switch Caps

The 3D printing suggestion is a great one. If you do not have access to one yourself, and are close to a College or Technical College, check with their Engineering, Mechanical Design, Tool and Die/Mold Making programs. Often times school departments welcome projects that students can reverse engineer, draw up, program, and fabricate. Limiting criteria is usually only a possible patent, or trademark infringement, which these button caps will not be violating.
It is close to end of semester at most schools now but contact them to see anyway. Some students may do it as a "Capstone" semester project, or schedule it for first thing next semester. Generally, most departments only look for a small "donation" to pay for materials, and they are glad to provide the real world experience to their students.
 
I started this thread so I only think it is fair for me to do the necessary preliminary work. Please take a look and check my drawing and measurements (the part was not precisely square nor symmetrical), feedback is appreciated. I would be grateful to those individuals who have access to a 3D printer to create some prototypes and see how they work. Then they can determine a fair price based on the time and materials required to produce the finished product.
It might be difficult to match the available material to the PL silver color, so the intent is to use a gray color to make the part and then spray paint to match the original. I think WOPL Sniffer has the correct paint color.
 

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I emailed the drawing to work. I have 3-d design software there to use.

I have gray “abs-like” resin on hand (also clear) and I’ve been printing stuff for my son to use with his monster trucks. It is still a bit brittle, but better than standard resin.

The printer will hold 0.05mm resolution so detail is not a problem.
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I was reworking my C1 several months ago and wanted to re-paint the cover due to some scratches. There were a couple recommendations of Rustoleum colors to use for the cover and switches. Might be a good starting point for your button caps. Mine cleaned up fine, so I did not try to repaint them.
 

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J!m said:
I emailed the drawing to work. I have 3-d design software there to use.

I have gray “abs-like” resin on hand (also clear) and I’ve been printing stuff for my son to use with his monster trucks. It is still a bit brittle, but better than standard resin.

The printer will hold 0.05mm resolution so detail is not a problem.
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There you go !
J!m, that is some super creative work.
Great education for your son. We are only limited by our imagination!
 
I just download the STL files and arrange and slice them for printing.

I did design and print a damper paddle for the Micro MA-505 tone arm from scratch.

I’m much better with 2-D than 3-D but I can do it. This is a simple enough part and I could probably fit 20-30 in one print run once the details are set.
 
mr_rye89 said:
I'm just spit-balling in FreeCAD, about 20 minutes in, no experience, just trying to get a shape.....
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Your CAD skills are much better than mine. These are a very accurate depiction of the Carver pushbutton covers, but I am trying to match the rectangular Phase Linear pushbutton covers. You can shape a PL pushbutton cover into a Carver pushbutton cover with some precision file work, but not the other way around. Also, it seems the PL covers are more scarce than the Carver covers.
 
J!m said:
I emailed the drawing to work. I have 3-d design software there to use.

I have gray “abs-like” resin on hand (also clear) and I’ve been printing stuff for my son to use with his monster trucks. It is still a bit brittle, but better than standard resin.

The printer will hold 0.05mm resolution so detail is not a problem.
View attachment 71777View attachment 71778
Click to expand...
Can't wait to see the results of your work!
 
 

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George S. said:
The power switches arrived. They're marked 10 amps 250 VAC. Nice heavy solder lugs with a large hole for 14 AWG with room to spare. VERY nice. Thanks Sniff!
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If you use both sets of contacts with a big ceramic snubber cap across it, you'll have more than enough for arc free operation for the life of the amp.
 
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