On Sat, 25 Aug 2001, Tony Duell wrote: If only we had Star Trek's replicators! I'd say that personal manufacturing is bound only to get easier and less expensive. Some day, even before the advent of replicators, it will be feasible and cheap to build most any replacement part. I would expect that to have a revolutionary effect on many fields of old stuff collecting. -- Jeffrey S. Sharp jss(a)subatomix.com

Very small parts are difficult because it's hard to work with them under any circumstances. However, I've found that broken front-panel switches can be repaired either by gluing the broken part with "super-glue" or by disassembling a complete switch and replicating the broken part. As for matching the color, I've found that making replacements for ALL the switches makes for a nice matching set, though not original. That, of course, is a matter of aesthetics. Of course, front-panel switches generally aren't what one would call "small" parts. If you use the Silastic Moldmaking kits that are available, one problem that comes up is augmenting the desired part in such a way that the resin can be applied into the mold without injection hardware. A syringe will help some, but the resin is generally quite thick, and requires a big one. I used a syringe I got from my veterinarian to "squirt" horse-wormer into my dogs' mouths when I had to worm the bunch of them, which was needed a couple of times a year. I've had one of those for over 20 years and they allow themselves to be reused. The difficulty with really small parts, or with parts that have thin barbs, latches, etc, is that they're quite fragile and removing them from the mold can be difficult to do without breaking them. Likewise, if you use plaster and pot-metal (lost wax method) or anything of that sort. A two-part mold of any sort brings with it the likelihood of a seam, that has to be removed with a razor blade or XACTO knife, and that's seldom perfect. The seam can interfere with proper operation, and certainly will present a cosmetic effect that you may not like. Building your own spare parts is not easy. For that reason, if you do it, particularly if you turn out a really successful replica, let the rest of us know about it, since that means that you have the tooling worked out and can save us the effort of replicating your hard work. If you've done that, you deserve appropriate compensation, well above the "normal" price of a part, for making the otherwise impossible-to-replace part available once more. Dick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Iggy Drougge" <optimus(a)canit.se> To: "Jay West" <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 9:28 AM Subject: Re: Just curious about injection molding or casting