DEC switch handles

On 8/24/07, woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: I have worked mostly with various PDP-8 switches, and the 11/70 switches. The PDP-8 switches are nothing unusual, for the time, but I don't know where one would find quantities of them now. The 11/70 switches are rather ordinary C&K switch bodies with uncommon, but standard, squarish stamped sheet-metal snap-mounts. New C&K switches are a few dollars each, unless you can find them surplus (which I did at the Mansfield Hamfest last year, at least for the non-momentary, snap-action switches for my 11/70 panel). I don't know how to describe the older switches, except to say that they were the rather common slide-switch type of the era, with the bakelite slide and square stem that is topped by a ridged curved actuator area. Lots of them were used for power switches for 1960s and 1970s appliances. The reason the DEC switch handles were these odd levered affairs was to fit over an ordinary switch. Personally, I could use some 11/70 switch covers - I have a panel with _zero_ actuators. At the moment, I have standard C&K black paddles on them, which is unaesthetic, but functional. If 11/70 actuators were to be made, I would probably be interested, but I'm unconvinced that at present prices, it's economical to make a hobbyist run of them. Perhaps in the medium-term future, should fab-at-home-type hardware continue to drop in price, the equation will look more favorable, but right now, I don't think it is. -ethan