Seeburg Knife Switch
By Douglas K. Rhodes
Greetings:
Thanks to Marc Kaufmann, Craig Brougher, Darrell Clarke and others who have responded to the question of electrical and chemical safety in general, and to my query regarding the Seeburg knife switch in particular. I thoroughly agree that fire and personal safety considerations rank a whole lot higher than authenticity and originality.
I had failed to mention that the knife switch in question was brought to my attention by the owner of the nickelodeon I was working on. The coin slot was damaged, and the step-switch was non-functional, so all on-off operations were being done by hand. I was watching the owner start the machine by flicking the coin-switch with his finger when he suddenly yanked his hand back - a small bite. He just grinned, said he was used to it. Well, I'm not, and I don't want to be. The discovery that the whole metal step-switch platform was momentarily electrically hot every time the switch went through shut-off raised a few hairs on the back of my neck. There is also the pertinent question of liability if I do extensive repairs on the instrument and then it either burns his house down, electrocutes him, or both.
I'll pursue Craig and Darrell's suggestions regarding relays and micro- switches. If I can come up with something elegant, I'll go public.
Cheers
Doug Rhodes
Victoria, British Columbia
CANADA |
(Message sent Thu 15 Aug 1996, 22:32:00 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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