Scarfwearer's Season 14 Wooden Console

[masteriii]

Well I have wondered if maybe I could make a wall panel or two, just as a backdrop... but I'm not sure I dare: that's exactly how the last console room began.

That comment made my night.  The console looks gorgeous and each addition just gets better.

[domvar]

http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/shop/connectors/switches/push-switches/switch-and-momentary-push-button-981075.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=H7Media wow these buttons look expensive but they seem to be the correct ones

[Scarfwearer]

Thanks for the link! I found a couple of other sources at similar prices, but I would need 96 of them...
I did find a Chinese supplier on ebay at about a third of the price, but that still adds up to a *lot* of money for 96 of them.
Possibly I will buy a few and make dummies for the rest.
Currently I have 100 of the coloured lenses on order from CPC, but they're out of stock so they've sent me a partial shipment, which is not quite enough to make one of the panels.

Crispin

[domvar]

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/202692/211100195-321606573/20-Psc-of-illuminated-button-five-color-available-arcade-machine-accessory.html


Better price but slightly different $13 usd for 20

[Scarfwearer]

Those ones are 30mm x 50mm. I need ones that are about 18mm x 24mm I did find another arcade game parts site that had interesting buttons which might work for console builders, but it didn't have the smaller buttons either.
I appreciate the research on my behalf!

The best price I've found so far are these guys: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ALLPARTSPIPE/_i.html?_nkw=lighted+push+switch&submit=Search&_sid=290502855

If you buy 50, they can do them at about £2.50 each. Still more than the price of a laptop if I did all of them.

Crispin

[type_1012_tardis]

Ouch.

Personally, i like the "dummy" idea best at those prices....  Still, it may be possible to put a few in now, and some dummies, and phase in more real ones over a few months or years... if they're still making them at that point.
Just a thought.

End of Line

[Scarfwearer]

It's a good idea, and quite possibly what I'll do.
I just have to try to make dummies that look reasonably convincing...

Crispin

[Elvis Gump]

Have you thought about just casting all those lights out of clear (dyed for each color) resin? There's some stuff called "Easy Cast" clear resin that I got here in America from a place called Hobby Lobby and it can be dyed, it's self degassing and was only about $25 IIRC  and I'm very sure the two bottles of A & B in there would probably do two whole consoles worth of lights at least. You'd need to make a couple of molds so you could do say at least a dozen or so buttons in each run, but it would be the cheapest way to go and just either put cheap LEDs behind them if you wanted blinkyness or one light with diffuser behind a whole panel.

[Scarfwearer]

I hadn't thought of casting them.
I've managed to order just the coloured lenses at £0.25 each - total about £25 for the 100 of them. They haven't all arrived yet.
I still have to find a way to make the black bezels that they sit in. Since they're pretty much touching each other along the row, I think I may be able to make a convincing dummy bezel as a cut strip of black plastic with grooves cut between the lenses. That's the next thing to try.
If that doesn't work well enough, casting might be next.

Thanks!
Crispin

[Elvis Gump]

Casting stuff is tedious, and you need stuff to make molds, mold release (cheap talc works great too) and it's messy and stinky, but sometimes when you need lots of fiddly bits like this is the thing. I kinda hate the der blinken litzen look of some of the classic consoles, especially when a lot of those old off-the-shelf incandescent light lens things used per-nineties are practically impossible to find anymore, but sometimes recasting those things is the only way to go.

It's also probably tedious to keep thanking everyone for saying what a gorgeous work the console is, but I'll just ditto that. I'm going to be a pain and say you should build the rest of the room to go with it. Anything else would be half measures you know. At least in this way you have plausible deniability with which you can blame the internet on the fury this provokes with lady of the house...

[celation]

BTW, Crispin - if you need extra reference of those rectangular buttons for any reason, the control panels in the bridge and transporter room of the Liberator in Blake's 7 Series 1 seem to be peppered with them. Must have cost a fortune.

I think there are a few nice close-ups in Ep 3.

C.

[Scarfwearer]

I ordered 100 switch lenses online at £0.25 each. These are now arriving in installments, as this appears to be more than the supplier has in stock.



At this point I have enough of each colour to do one of the three panels that have these switches. The plan is to use these with dummy bezels (the black part they sit on) to make a lighted panel array.
The first task is to lay them out and choose the spacing.



I found that with the vertical spacing they need to take up 5" of height on the panel and 7" of width. There are a couple of white bottle caps in the photo which are too large.

I cut some strips of translucent acrylic from scraps that I had left over from the ceiling of the console room. These cut okay on a table saw or mitre saw, but those are large tools so it's very hard to handle small pieces such as individual switch bezels. I cut grooves along the strips to make individual raised bezels.



I made a couple of attempts to mask off the switch lens area to allow light to escape after painting.


The template was made using a table in a word processor: setting the width and height to 14mm and 19mm exactly.


I glued the cut rectangles on with Pritt, but the spray paint still bled underneath and looked very obvious through the switch lens. At this point I resorted to hand painting around the lenses.
I borrowed some modelling paint from my son, and used a marker pen and ruler to lay out the lens grid on the translucent acrylic. I then carefully painted the strips with a fine brush.



This worked much better, though it took a couple of hours and a steady hand for the one panel. I then attached the lenses with super glue. In this photo the strips are not yet attached to the panel.


I used a clear piece of acrylic/Plexiglass for the panel - replacing the hardboard one in the photos so far. I masked off windows for the strips and then spray painted it. The paint bled through a little, but I sanded some of it off, and it doesn't show badly through the opaque strips. I also drilled holes for the knobs at the top (using another template). The sanding should also help the glue get a grip on the clear Plexiglass.


I glued the strips on with UHU glue. I decided that I'd start with 'Panel 5' which has the top row of buttons blue. This panel is seen the least in the show, so if my techniques improve then I will finish up with the 'hero' panel. Another look at the reference photos and some brightening convinced me that it does actually have 8 columns of switches like the others. I'm presuming the existence of the row of knobs at the top which is unseen on the show as far as I know.

Here it is mounted: not finished yet, but that's it so far.


The lighting is just a flashlight.



I also had to move the last panel I made, as it was in the wrong bay!

Crispin

[celation]

Yay! Buttons! That looks brilliant!

That has cheered up my morning nicely, seeing that!

[rocket]

Absolutely love watching this console come together.

[Rassilons Rod]

WOW, from the thumbnail I really thought you two button panels installed

But You're in the final stages now mate! You must be thrilled and proud! I like how you're replicating the screen shots