Used equipment/button wear

[ant42onia]

I can only guess where this should be posted, but it was worth a try.

Has anyone found a good way to repair worn off soft touch buttons on old CNCs? The plastic covering the controls is very brittle on our old mill and laser, and the parts over many of the buttons have come off.

I'm looking into some kind of tape to cover the buttons, but I'm concerned that the greasy, dusty environment wont let any such repairs last long.

Does anyone have any ingenous solutions?

 

[MechanicalChef]

Have you checked McMaster? We've bought bags of buttons. There's a chance you might find an exact match.

 

[Pressed]

Just a few sites to look over.

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.datacal.com/control-panel.htm[/URL]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.karman.com/custom.cfm[/URL]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.jamak.com[/URL]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.eecoswitch.com/Catalog%20Files/cat_elas.htm[/URL]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.usplasticcoatings.com[/URL]
...
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.rescuetape.com[/URL]    then there's this

Are these the type of things you need? You might be able to thermal vacuum form a plastic copy of your control panel and send that to one of those companies for a transfer to be made. Sounds like some custom work is needed, good luck.

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Business Site

http://mech.e.tripod.com

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Cycle Utopia.......

http://www.tailofthedragon.com

 

[ant42onia]

I don't know if the company will go for a custom made cover for our old equipment, but I'll get some quotes. Those are some interesting sites!

Has anyone tried that rescue tape? Would it work in a single layer over the existing rubber cover? Sounds like cool stuff if it really does what it claims~

 

[Pressed]

You will only find out about the tape when you try it, I was reluctant to add that link but did it anyway.

If you have several machines with buttons on the panel in the same positions then it would be cheaper to order in quantity, of course you already know that. As it can be classified as custom, some of those companies will attempt to gauge you. A thorough search should find one affordable I would think.

The cheapest way might be to do all the work yourself. The membrane thickness might not be super uniform and might look a little globby or melted, but as long as it protects who cares.

==========================================
Business Site

http://mech.e.tripod.com

------------------------------------------
Cycle Utopia.......

http://www.tailofthedragon.com