dec plastic panel mounts - ordering?

[vrs]

From: "Jay West"
> I was showing someone my collection, and while standing in front of my
11/45
> restoration project I lamented about how those little black plastic
brackets
> that attach to the upright rails just can't be found anymore. You know the
> ones... the bracket has two round knobs that always break off - these are
> used to mount DEC filler panels.

I have had excellent success casting plastic replicas of these.  They're a
lot
easier than the switch handles :-)!

> He said he knew a plastics firm that may be able to do a short run at a
> reasonable price. Failing that, he felt another company he knows of may be
> able to make them out of metal. This gives rise to two questions...
>
> 1) Would replicas made of metal work as well as replicas made of plastic?

They might, but I'd worry that they would damage the tapered plastic
cylinders
they mate with.  That would be much worse.

> 2) How many people would be interested in some if the price is reasonable?
> And how many? I know a few of my systems I'd go back and use 4 brackets on
> each panel instead of the 2 I skimped on. In addition, a few racks I
simply
> couldn't mount filler panels at all because of no brackets. Of course,
> before the guy can quote me a price I need to give him a firm minimum
count.
> The more in the firm count the lower the price is. I figured I'd order 40
or
> 50 if the price was reasonable. But I'm sure my own order would be cost
> prohibative unless other collectors jump in.

I'm molding them one at a time (at about an hour in the mold each), but the
cost seems quite moderate.  (There is a minute or two's worth of trimming
for each one, too.)

I'm leaving them white -- I haven't tried to dye them black, to match the
DEC
ones.

    Vince