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Smooth is the word that comes to mind.

That's exactly right. I'm jealous of how Brian's buttons perfectly duplicated the texture of the originals.

Texture would be cool, but I've fallen in love with how the parts look now. I will definitely experiment with sanding, grinding, and using a Dremel tool to increase the light diffusion. Maybe adding diffusion material to the hollow cores, but I've always felt that traps the light, like on Brian's. Instead, I wanted light to fill the hollow core and light up the thin outside face. Many things to try, let's see if we find one that works!


The texture story, as a random bit of information, if anyone's interested:

The company that produced the Greenlights Lit Buttons call the texture "EDM finish". That is, it has no extra finish beyond how they etched out the steel mold with the EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining). A misunderstanding early on led me to believe that the molding company could add a "light glass bead" texture to the parts. Six months later, I found that I was wrong all along.

At the last minute before production, I was given the option to have the precious steel molds sent to a texture shop to have a frosted texture applied, pretty much my only choice thanks to the small part size. The parts would still be smooth but they may have had better light diffusion.

Texturizing would have cost $1320 extra and an extra week or two to complete. After reviewing the pre-production clear buttons and posting their pictures to the BBS, I decided against the texture. Texturizing would either look really cool or reasonably irreversibly look worse. And since I'd already spent extra time and money in other areas (MKII knob, custom coloration, etc), I couldn't swing the additional cost. Instead, I fell in love with the pre-production samples that I had, and I think you all did too!

The motto for this project was, "If you're going to do it, make it perfect." And I tried, monitoring everything to leave nothing to chance. I even tried to find light diffusion professionals who could help optimize parts; with no luck. But in late March, way past my deadline, with the chance to start production immediately if texturizing was skipped, and having had pushed my molder beyond reason; I couldn't give the texture process the scrutiny that I wanted. So, the devil I had, I knew, and stuck with, and am happy with, and I hope it makes everyone happy! The end.
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FireFox31
110gig MKIIa (30+80), Eutronix lights, 32 meg stacked RAM, Filener orange gel lens, Greenlights Lit Buttons green set