Knife Switch Housing

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The knife switch is housed in one of the corner columns from the box, it builds upon the corner column framework. This is the most complex of the four corners because this one is locked at the start of the game and needs to be opened before the switch can be flipped. On the original box I guess I just glued some bits together until it fitted and worked, now that I'm building ten I actually had to take a bit of time to get my files in order and I also a redesign to make the geometries work out.


There are lots of individual parts that go into this corner, captive nuts at the top and bottom to mount it in the box. Another captive nut for the locking key and all the separate fingers that go into the hinge joint. The fingers on the lid were cut from 2mm ply to allow plenty of space between the 3mm fingers of the box. Solder lugs were attached to the screws of the knife switch to provide an easy way to solder wires to the switch when required.




The flap that closes over the knife switch has corresponding fingers made from 2mm plywood, glued into the lower layer of the two. The keyhole at the bottom has to be wide enough to accommodate the radiator key. There isn't a lot of thread on the 5mm bleed valve screws so this all had to be made from 1mm thick ply to ensure that the screw could actually be done up. Embedded right in the middle between the layers is a small brass catch, this basically acts like a washer on the screw but the large tab allows it to be held captive among the layers so it won't fall out. By drilling this out to 4.5mm instead of the full 5mm it makes an attempt at holding the screw captive too (it's not perfect but it's better than nothing)











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