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DIY illuminated buton, Datawheel for the MIDIbox Community


moxi

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What material did you use for the button itself?

i use resin, the same used to build boat, mixed with a product called here "durcal", it's a kind of marble powder. i use a tiny quantity of pigment in powder that can find in art shop..

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Oh I thought they were that silicone stuff... now I see, it's a flexible mold made of silicone and fibreglass resin. That durcal gives it a really nice opaque look :)

ditto!!

Moxi,

How do you prevent the bubbles from forming when mixing the resin and activator?

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How do you prevent the bubbles from forming when mixing the resin and activator?

it's the product called "durcal" that make the resin louder, so the bubble goes awaymore easy, secondly i take care when i do the "mix" to go as slowmler as i can.

before inserting the activator , i let the mix about  30 minutes so the bubbles have the times to  go away.

if you want a resin "pure" whitout any bubble, you have to use a machine called in french "pompe à vide", a tool that put the resin under a high presure until the bubble get out of them, but such a machine is expensive (about 300 Euros!)

you can use your washing machine in "dry" mode to tremble the mix a bit more, it's the way i use for the while....

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Hey just so you know, they just got approved by the wife  That's very unusual!

Oh, and she also said, "They'd make a good night-light" hahahahaah

stryd_, I really hope she didn't misunderstand that! Just think of the picture – you swinging ladies hosiery around your head like a cowboy – I mean, I would have probably also thought about something sexual and not that you were just shaking out air bubbles...

;D lmao...

(uhh, I need a fresh cup'o oxygen after all this fun...)

btw:

very nice thread moxi! thanks!

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Yeh, the thing i was swinging around, was actually something I made many many years ago, from a modified recipe in the original anarchists cookbook (I'd love a copy of that now!)...

It's the kind of thing that goes "BANG", but not the way you mean  ;D

Further details withheld to protect the very, very guilty....heheheehhe

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I used to use centrifugal force to pull bubbles out of a thick mixture, by swinging it around my head in some ladies hosiery... maybe something like that is a trick that could work?

LO-Freekin-L

Please make that your signature...

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Another way is to use an old refrigerator compressor.

This device is able to create a fair amount of vacuum.

If you put the resin into a airtight container and suck the air out, bubbles will disappear since they are sucked out as well.

Plastic modell builder use this method and you can get a compressor for free on the junkyard. But please only use one where the cooling fluid already has gone, otherwise you will enlarge the hole in the ozone layer.

Regards

Michael

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have you thought about trying a pressure cooker?

i never try to warm the resin, but more hot is the ambiant temperature more quickly act the activator, and in the normal case, you just have about 30mn until the resin go solid, it's not enough to make the pressure cooker getting enough hot...

yes, i know this hint, but for that you have to buil a really-really hermetic box, it's not as easy as it seems to be...

after some search, it's appear that plastic modell builder use a plastic bag instead of a box...that could be cheaper by this way...i will try in the upcoming month to build such a tool...

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here's a suction pump from a fire engine on ebay - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Suction-Pump-Branch-Ex-Fire-Engine_W0QQitemZ200012428612QQihZ010QQcategoryZ396QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

81_2.JPG

or maybe a dental suction pump:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dental-Suction-Pump_W0QQitemZ150017257174QQihZ005QQcategoryZ31458QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

but the absolute best thing would be a lab suction pump, they'll perform much better than a fridge pump (I saw one of those on the street today) - keep an eye out on ebay, i'm sure they must turn up.

or if you live near Bangkok, I hear stories about some of the girls out there....

btw: what size are the buttons?

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thanks for the links, i've an old refrigerator , i will see what it's possible to do whit it...

btw: what size are the buttons?

they're are 1cm/diameter for 8mm of height and 1cm/diameter for 6mm of height, the last have a more round shape...

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Moxi,

When I look closely at the button on the left side, it seems like its somewhat soft, because of the bottom part of the button is bent.

Are these buttons semi-soft? Or are they as hard as a rock?

Also, did you polish these buttons at all? They sure look shiny 8) and perrr-ty. ;)

Very nice job!!

blue_not_lighted.jpg

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hi,

Are these buttons semi-soft? Or are they as hard as a rock?

no, they are hard..

Also, did you polish these buttons at all?

no, that would be too much work if it was needed to polish them one by one !

here are the one with a red led ( i will take better pic tomorrow-with day light):

cap_red.jpg

and the cap with the tact switch:

tactswitch_pcb.jpg

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If you don't want to go through the trouble of molding the buttons, you can also use large diameter LEDs (Reichelt sells e.g. 8mm and 10mm diameter for 0.08-0.12 Euros each). They are round on top, so the touch is not so nice, but if this was a problem you could easily flatten the top using a belt grinder (be careful with your fingers, though  ;D).

Regards, ilmenator

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