Okay it seems the supply of Buttons has all but dried up, seeing my Father has part ownership in a plastic molding company I am "CONSIDERING" having a mold made and doing a run of them.
(I have to look into the costs I am not rich)

I was going to slightly change the buttons

The Knob will loose the little bumps on the top and I'll knurl the sizes for Grip

The Buttons I was considering molding arrows into the top or knurling the top

Mostly to avoid the copy write issues.

So my question is how much would you pay for some nice quality buttons?

4 Colors
Translucent Green
Translucent Smoke
Translucent Blue
Translucent Red

(MAYBE)
UV Reactive Clear

IF I do them it will be a kit with

All 4 Buttons, the knob, a small rubber O-ring and a piece of diffraction grating (To be used to blur out the Light from the LED’s

Cost for a Mold is around 500, which I am willing to spend if I have enough people to recoup some of my costs.

I am not sure if I could get permission to Exactly Copy the Buttons, but I would be willing to do so if I could get the ok.

I might also be willing to Purchase the Original Mold if it’s compatible with my Father equipment and in fair shape, which would speed up the process a great deal.

Also if anyone has a Cad Drawing of the Buttons and Knob that would save me some money and in turn make them cost less.

In reply to:

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I might also be willing to Purchase the Original Mold if it’s compatible with my Father equipment and in fair shape, which would speed up the process a great deal.

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So your father's equipment does injection molding? I think it's been said that that stuff was worn out already, but maybe that was just the facia. Rob V. is the person to talk to about the CAD files.

Stu

Injection, thermoforming and about 20 others I don't understand.

Beelzebub, keep in mind that for each kit you need to build 2 knobs. One fo the Mark2 style and one for the Mark2a style.

i forgot about the mark 1 units i don't have a mark 1 knob to work against.

Sorry... For those that didn't catch that - the Mark 1 does not have a knob at all. The Mark 2 has a round shafted knob. The Mark 2a has a keyed knob.

By the way, I notice that you are missing amber from your color list.

In reply to:

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All 4 Buttons, the knob, a small rubber O-ring and a piece of diffraction grating (To be used to blur out the Light from the LED’s

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I always thought diffraction grating was to separate light into different colors, to you know, diffract. Am I missing something?

Stu

I think he's thinking of "diffusion" and not "diffraction" and was just confused.

Is there such a thing as diffusion grating.?

Stu

Humm so far I don't see alot of people wanting buttons, I'll give it some time, and as for amber I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, right now the 1 person that said they would like a set is not worth me spending the money to make a mold, but I can change if more people want some...

I personally would like to make 500 Sets 125 each of 4 different colors, 500 is the minium my dad's place will run with out my having to pay a huge setup fee.
(500 pieces they will not change me except for Time and materals)

Humm so far I don't see alot of people wanting buttons

Okay, (a) you didn't give a lot of time for replies before making that conclusion, and (b) experience has taught us all to be a bit skeptical of people offering to make buttons. If memory serves, at least three or four people have offered to make buttons before you, and of those, only one (Brian M) has actually come through and done it to the point of being able to sell them (but the ones he did sell were fantastic). And even he got a bunch of back orders shortly before disappearing for a long time.

What I'm trying to say is, there are a bunch of people who want illuminated buttons. They're just not all jumping in and replying to this thread just now.

Not to my knowledge, no. Hence my assumption of "confusion".

Humm so far I don't see alot of people wanting buttons

The post you started this thread with doesn't appear to ask such people to speak up, either, so I'm not sure why you expect to.

I want buttons. I wanted buttons before, I still want buttons now, if you're asking.

if I can get a CAD drawing of the buttons from someone, or maybe purchase the Mold if someone wants to look for it, last post I saw said it was rusting somewhere.

I'll get a price on the mold if its under 500 I'll make the mold and get some buttons cast.

the Proof is in the pudding but I don't want to get stuck with 500 button sets thats why I asked how many people would want a set of buttons.

This has come up before.

I suggested then, and suggest again now, that my feel for this "market" is about 200 sets of buttons, at less than US$35/set.

Cheers

Being optimistic, with somewhere in the region of 4000 empegs out there, you'd hope that the market would be bigger. Being realistic, only a small percentage of owners are regulars here and thus actually now about the button hack.

I don't know whether that 200 figure is accurate or not. Perhaps over time 500 would be reasonable. I do know that I wouldn't want my money tied up in 500 kits hoping. Since the biggest cost in low volume injection molding is the mold itself, I wonder if a better value proposition would be to offer (eg) 125 sets of all 4 colors for $60. This would appeal to many people and help recoup costs faster.

That all being said, Eutronix are making a concerted effort and have made an investment that they want to recoup, and it looks like Brian might be back in the game too. I wouldn't be comfortable making a $500 investment just to go into competition with those two - one pioneered this hack, and the other is fast gaining an excellent reputation as a one-stop empeg service shop. Tough competition.

its not really a matter of cost its a matter of its something i want to do.

My plan is to cast them in colored transulant plastic 4 colors 125 of each one run unless something really odd happens was planning on red, green, blue and smoke but I can make yellow also its a 100 dollar setup each time I have to change colors, so I want to narrow down the options to the ones people want most,

how about 100 Sets of each of 5 colors
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
Smoke

I still want to give it a shot, and would really Love to make an offer on the oringnal mold if its out there or a CAD drawing both of which would save money and time.

with somewhere in the region of 4000 empegs out there, you'd hope that the market would be bigger.

FWIW, I have zero interest in illuminated buttons.

In reply to:

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how about 100 Sets of each of 5 colors
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
Smoke

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I would definately take one set - depending on price, I would take an extra 1 or 2 colour options.

The original tools are probably long since scrapped. I certainly don't have them anyway. In any case they were soft tools and 4000 or so shots was about their limit.

We have hundreds of spare knobs and buttons but they're all opaque grey so not much use.

Rob

I still want to give it a shot, and would really Love to make an offer on the oringnal mold if its out there or a CAD drawing both of which would save money and time.

I think this was has gone so far, that i'd wait to see what Eutronix turns up with. I've posted earlier in another thread that i would be willing to procuce buttons as well, but only if Eutronixs molders fails to come up with buttons. There is really no need to have two supliers of buttons, it's better to have one supplier and perhaps have them do special edition buttons.

For the record, nearly no matter the cost i want a set of every color i can get my hands on for both my empegs, that makes it 10 sets or so for me. Nearly 5% of the total amount of buttoms as forseen by Mark :-)

Cheers

Kaare

I'm waiting to see what Eutronix comes up with on buttons. He's gone through a lot of hassle to get this far and I'm willing to wait to see what happens.

Just so you can add my numbers to the total count against Mark's projections. I'd likely wind up with 2-3 sets of blue, smoke, and UV reactive buttons. (I'd hope that the UV reactive could be done combined with the smoke and blue so that they'd be smoke/blue in daylight and glow in darkness)

Even if I don't illuminate all my empegs I suspect new buttons would look better than the grey plastic.

so could I purchase a set of mk2 and mk1 buttons from you so I don't have to tear apart my Empeg to get them ?

Well I have requested to purcahse a few sets of buttons to use as templets and I will send them out to have molds made I'll keep you informed on what is happening.

In retrospect, since my original guesstimate of 200 button sets, the evidence now suggests perhaps 200 sets (4 buttons + 1/2 knobs per set)..

I suppose Stu may have a more accurate number, based on orders for the electronics behind the buttons.

Cheers

I want at least 2 Sets of all colors i can get, but empeg business goes slow and i will show patience, cause Stu has put a lot of effort in this thing and i want to honor that. If he can't finish, i'm on the next guys list, who will try to make them.
I have the LED-Kits for my 2 empegs sitting here waiting... (hoping for Amersfoort to have them installed )

cheers, Thomas

I'd be interested in 2 sets...one for each of my empegs.

Drat that splint on my baby finger!

I meant to say, that my revised intuitive estimate is perhaps 300 sets, given that at least a few people will likely want all available colours.

Cheers

Depending on the price I'd be in for 2 sets.

Given how consistent that typo was, I assume they'd be ordering a third of a knob per set too?

Sorry I got the quote back from the molder and its a bit out of my price range so we will all have to wait on buttons.
Sorry


Joseph,

I received the material quote and the following is the cost for tooling and part cost:

Tooling Cost: $7290.00
Design, Construct and Test a 6 cavity tool to produce all six knobs in a class 103 tool with fine EDM finish.

Part Cost: $1.12 per set in quantities of 500 sets

Notes:

A) Lead time on tooling would be 4-6 weeks from PO and from date we receive the cad files.
B) Material quoted "Acrylic" transparent colors.
C) We would obtain sample colors for this run to keep part cost down.
D) The above part cost to include the 5 different color changes.
E) Terms on tooling to be 50% down 40% on completion of tool and 10% net 10 from approval.



Thank you, for the opportunity to quote this project and please feel free to call if you have any questions.

Respectfully,

Mike Wilkins

Hmm, even at $20 per set, you'd just break even if you sold a complete minimum run of 500 sets (which is probably the upper end of the market for these). Even at $40/set, you'd have to sell 250 to break even.

I agree, that's a tough busines case to make.

--Dan.

I was hoping for 500 or 600 bucks for the mold but 7000 is just way out of my reach my last name isn't Gates so unless one of the other molders come back I won't be making buttons.

If memory serves, at least three or four people have offered to make buttons before you, and of those, only one (Brian M) has actually come through and done it to the point of being able to sell them (but the ones he did sell were fantastic).

Aww jeez Tony, now I feel guilty.... I tried I really did, had the mold made and everything, just after two hundred bucks down the crapper to have 3 decent sets of buttons and the rest bubble filled hunks o' poop... well had to throw in the towl...

I truly meant no disrespect to those valiant souls who had tried in the past. Any kind of casting, be it plastic, metal, or otherwise, is a difficult craft to master.

I was just giving you grief, it was an ordeal, I would have succeded to, if it weren't for those pesky meddling bubbles....

... and their talking dog...

I want a few sets of buttons, and i have a bunch of friends with empegs who all want buttons. That's like 4 or 5 complete sets right there. We all have mk2a, but i wouln'dt mind a set for my Mk2.

I would be interested in (most interested in first) smoke, green, red, blue... and would love to get a kit of all colors, i dont care what it costs... i've been waiting for years for some backlit buttons. ;-)

I'm up for some smoke!

... and their talking dog...

I thought Bubbles was the talking dog.