Aw man, you beat me to it by just a few hours. I am still shooting for the early March deadline to start taking orders. After a long wait, here's an update:

The casters finally got to my project on their To Do list, made my requested CAD file changes, I reviewed them, and returned final changes. When they apply my updates, I will have the CADs sent off to be prototyped in SLA for fit testing; hopefully in green and blue so we'll have something nice to look at.

But here's the important part: I'm having two different MK2a knobs prototyped; one with a "two piece" shaft and one with a solid circle shaft. When I get these SLA parts, I'm going to do a quick poll to see which you like better. Since I don't want to delay the approval process too much, get your votes in quick. The poll should be up by Wed 1/12/04.

Or will a MK2a full circle shaft not work at all? I've attached a photoshopped pic of the CAD showing what I mean. Maybe it needs the "two piece" so it can be built tight and expand a little around the metal. Maybe the full circle will wear out and get wider so the knob falls off. Maybe the circular "spring" really is needed around the "two piece" shaft. But the Brian knob that I'm borrowing (nope, haven't stolen it Paul ) is completely filled with just the D shaft hole and it fits pretty well. And since my parts will be tough polycarbonate, they should be even stronger.

So, thoughts? Ideas? Are any of you still interested or will I end up with a pile of colorful plastic bits in the end? Watch for the MKIIa knob poll in a week and a half. And if you have an MKII only, you can vote to say that, because I'm curious to know how many MKII users are out there. Thanks everyone!

Oh yeah, and I made some encouraging progress on the metal button project. I got a rough quote that seems reasonable, and the design changes to make it work are not destructive. With these ideas, I can launch my typical "request for quote" assault on the investment casting industry to find someone with the price, procedure, and capabilities that are needed. There are still a few *big* unanswered questions, and I can't get to them until the mold-making/tool-building process is underway. Two weeks? A little more? I'll keep you posted.