Alpha / SH Type Pot 6mm Shaft Sources

Play-Doh? tiny

I don’t think Play-Doh will resist the torque of drilling out that brass insert…
Unless I let it dry for two years :slight_smile:
But maybe those modelling clays that you dry in an oven… or even just in air… I don’t know if they will be strong enough, but it’s worth a try as it can be done inside right now…

The problem is, you have to hold the knob firmly in a way that won’t mar it…
Having a cavity with the knob’s exact shape seems a good way to achieve this.
Now if there is another way than epoxy resin, which can be made either inside, or outside with -5ºC, I’m interested…

Google says you can dry Play-Doh in an oven, but YMMV!

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@eric I’m in the 21st century and I want to use 6mm knobs. Why can’t it be easy?

-Fumu / Esopus

Just imagine, the manufacturers have to make two kinds of pots, the knob manufacturers have to make to kinds of knobs, the resellers have to have twice as many references in store…
Customer do order either the wrong pot or the wrong knob.
6.35mm shafts are a pain for EVERYBODY !
Let’s boycott 6.35mm shafts on pots, encoders, etc… :stuck_out_tongue:
(I’m am almost serious here, modules I design will have 16mm pots which are easy to find with 6mm shafts, and knurled shafts work perfectly with the 6mm knobs I have)

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For the cut off pot that calls for a big big knob I found a perfect one from Germany. I may only use 6 but I order 10 to get a tiny discount. I wish that the 6mm described on the store website was just shorthand for 6.35mm. When they arrive I realize my litany in progress. I get 6.35mm knobs when I can but believe me these are too good and too vibrationally deeply personally speak to me to pass up. I believe some knurled shafts will work perfectly with them. However I think both the ones recommended by Sam and Caustic may fail to work with knobs. There’s no good explanation why some pots that fit in the boards can’t be 6mm knurled shaft and even if they don’t panel mount I believe most of the other pots with panel mounts can hold the whole panel in place.

-Fumu / Esopus


the original
silicone mold
resin cast
just a quickie done with extra material I had while doing a job .
the back is solid and can be drilled to what ever size needed .

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Which gets back to the how-to-drill-it-safely problem…

tape soft wood strips [ balsa , pine ] to the clamping face of vise or clamps which ever you have. drill with drill press if possible but a hand drill will work .

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the key is holding it with something besides your hand
the tool in the last picture behind drill is for finding centers on round materials you can make one on the cheap out of wood ,cardboard etc. [ just google it ]

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(This is why I print my own, with hex inserts so I can use them with whatever pots I happen to have.

No stylish metal plates on the front, though, but at least they fit :grinning:)

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There has to be a source for those I swear I’ve seen them sold by themselves before. But I’ve been coming up blank for months searching. If I could find them I would probably only be printing knobs. Even though I really don’t like printing knobs…FDM knobs just feel and look “cheap” to me…and while I’ve got great results from SLA…it’s just a lot of work and mess compared to buying them.

But if I could find nice metalized stickers…I’d probably print more because I’m silly that way :smiley:

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Something like this ?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/294213765/1000-silver-metalized-dot-stickers-small

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Cheap (but consistent) is the look I’m going for, so that’s alright :grinning: (I also don’t consider my random builds permanent, especially not the controls).

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Close. But those are just kind of shiny/rainbowish. I’m looking for the ones with a concentric pattern like normal knobs.

normal knobs :laughing:

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I think you already know that’s just (spray ?) paint on the “Boss” knobs…

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I’m not sure if we’re talking about different parts of the knob…or if I’m missing the joke :smiley:

So for completeness I sacrificed a knob and found that unlike knobs I remember destroying when I was younger these aren’t just stickers. They’re actually 0.6mm thick aluminum discs.

Disassembling old electronics as a kid more than once I found some knobs with similar inserts that had screws hidden behind them attaching them to a tapped hole in the center of the shaft. And all of those were just stickers. I had assumed these were the same. But apparently they’re somehwat nicer and are actually machined ( or more likely stmaped - but you can feel the texture) metal. I’m impressed. Still, if I could find those inserts or something close enough…I’d be a lot more excited about making my own knobs.

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You mean, that’s really metal ?
The knobs are cheap, the white paint is sometimes applied too thin and translucent, the point where it was attached to the sprue is often just torn away, and they put real metal on top of that ?

I was convinced that’s just silvery paint !
Sorry for that knob’s destiny…

And no, I don’t know where you can get these.

Yeah, I was very surprised to find it’s actually metal! Especially since I’ve seen metalized stickers used many times before.

I’m not sure if this particular knob came from Tayda or Amazon as I’ve bought a bunch from both places…but can’t really tell a difference between them - not sure if all of them actually use a metal disc like this.

And I’d be totally happy with just the sticker. As long as it has the concentric design and not just kind of a shimmery metal look. It’s killing me as I know I’ve seen those stickers for sale before but now that I want some I can’t find them :smiley:

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