3 Mar
2006
3 Mar
'06
4:33 p.m.
From: "Jay West"
I was showing someone my collection, and while
standing in front of my
11/45
restoration project I lamented about how those little
black plastic
brackets
that attach to the upright rails just can't be
found anymore. You know the
ones... the bracket has two round knobs that always break off - these are
used to mount DEC filler panels.
I have had excellent success casting plastic replicas of these. They're a
lot
easier than the switch handles :-)!
He said he knew a plastics firm that may be able to do
a short run at a
reasonable price. Failing that, he felt another company he knows of may be
able to make them out of metal. This gives rise to two questions...
1) Would replicas made of metal work as well as replicas made of plastic?
They might, but I'd worry that they would damage the tapered plastic
cylinders
they mate with. That would be much worse.
2) How many people would be interested in some if the
price is reasonable?
And how many? I know a few of my systems I'd go back and use 4 brackets on
each panel instead of the 2 I skimped on. In addition, a few racks I
simply
couldn't mount filler panels at all because of no
brackets. Of course,
before the guy can quote me a price I need to give him a firm minimum
count.
The more in the firm count the lower the price is. I
figured I'd order 40
or
50 if the price was reasonable. But I'm sure my
own order would be cost
prohibative unless other collectors jump in.
I'm molding them one at a time (at about an hour in the mold each), but the
cost seems quite moderate. (There is a minute or two's worth of trimming
for each one, too.)
I'm leaving them white -- I haven't tried to dye them black, to match the
DEC
ones.
Vince