Woot!!!
Sweet thanks for all the work you've put in.
Can't wait to get my hands on a set of blue buttons.

Bump...

Just checking up is every thing still a go for Feb.? (+ 2 weeks of course for the odd things that happen.)

Later,
Rob

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.

I'm inclined to go for the non-solid, "inner collar" type. The solid ones tend (in my experience) to drop off the shaft just when you least expect it (in the dark, in traffic) unless you glue them on.

For the collar type, you can cut a slot across the face of the collar and then set the correct grip tension on the shaft with the original circular collet spring. I've got lots of them here.

I'm also all for the non-solid, "inner collar" type of knob. The buttons I received from Stu where the solid type without the inner collar. These were fine, till a hot summer day, when pushing in for a knob-press, I felt the knob sink farther onto the shaft a little farther, I guess the hot summer heat softened up the knob material, and now that knob will fall off if I hit the backside of my emepg, Sometimes it will fall off while just bringing the empeg from my car to my house. Also, I can't press in the knob without a small piece of plastic between the shaft end and the inside of the knob.

If you’d like, I’d be happy to take some pictures of the backside of those knobs.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have SLA's made of both types of MKIIa knobs so we can see how they look.

Rob, I was considering sourcing those springs but I had no idea where to even start finding them. Do you think they will be expensive... and even worth it?

Oliver, hopefully with my hard plastic polycarbonate buttons, heat (and cold) won't make them soft (or brittle). They should be pretty darn tough, apparently. I plan to stress test the pre-production run when I get them.

Well, there's no real point re-sourcing them - I have a bag of about one million of them here

This knob type was the final, and best, version in my opinion.

I'd go with the "two piece" shaft and spring if you can arrange it.

In reply to Mataglap's post in the other Buttons thread, there has been constant progress in the months since my last post. My injection molding company is nearly complete with the 10 week process of carefully carving out the metal molds. Soon, I'll be receiving a small batch of red sets and clear sets to verify their fit.

I'll be GIVING AWAY these first sets (if they fit and look right). Watch the General forum during these next two weeks for yet another new thread, showing off the buttons and explaining the give away. I want to extend the give away to people outside the USA, if the shipping cost isn't too crazy.

Until then, PHEW, I have to get my website together and tackle many many other formalities which I intended to do during the downtime as the molders were working. Metal buttons are also in progress... if those Farnell button caps ever arrive from that retailer in Sweden... EVERYTHING should be ready during April. Thanks so much for your patience, and wish me luck that these production samples look as good as we all want them to!

It is. I have done that a few times.

(Was that the wrong thread? Oh well.)

Glad to hear that it all continues to move on! I'm looking forward to writing you a large check.

--Nathan