My Ampico On-Off toggle switch died a week or so ago.  Fortunately MMD
saved the day again and I was able to find a replacement switch from an
MMD reader.  In the meantime, I was reading some of the postings about
Ampico switches and thought while I wait for a replacement switch I'd
experiment with some of the MMD suggestions.

Terry Hochmuth's article discussing the Ampico grand power switch is
at http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/201506/2015.06.14.08.html 
He suggests using Radio Shack Model 275-651, Catalog # 2750651, "flat
lever heavy-duty toggle switch" as a replacement.  His suggestion is
a good one as this switch is sufficiently rated electrically and fits
inside the original switch box and brass face plate without modification.

The switch is a little on the flimsy side for being "heavy duty" but,
at 3 dollars cost, you get what you pay for.  There were other postings
by readers which suggested all sorts of switches but each required
altering the original drawer in some way.  My goal was not to destroy
the original parts or alter the drawer, if at all possible.

Unlike Terry, I didn't have to shorten the plastic switch handle as
there was still plenty of room in the drawer.  I also didn't want to
cut off the original toggle switch arm, so I played around with some
brass tubing.

With some hollow brass tube I mocked up a number of different setups
and found that having the rod attached in the center of the switch was
best as the replacement switch has a lot of lost motion and the rod,
if attached only on one side of the replacement switch's plastic arm,
had a tendency to want to twist the switch rather than toggle it over
to one side.

It would be best to bore a 1/8" hole vertically through the center of
the handle of the replacement switch.  However, the plastic handle of
the replacement switch isn't wide enough to accommodate the 1/8" brass
rod; it's too narrow.  Instead, I tried using a smaller diameter solid
rod for the entire "arm" but I found that there was too much play where
it attaches to the slider switch and too much give in the rod itself.

The largest rod the plastic arm could accommodate vertically was
3/32" so I drilled a hole in the very center of the arm at a distance
of 11/16" from the face plate to the center of the arm.  (Be sure the
"Off" position of the new switch is to the left and that the switch is
face up!)  Then I inserted and epoxied the 3/32" rod through the hole,
with 1 inch exposed from the center of the plastic arm to the top of
the rod.

I then epoxied a piece of hollow 9/64" brass rod over the 3/32" rod.
(I cut this larger diameter piece of rod to length before setting it
in place.)  The original brass switch "arm" is 1 inch long from the
center of the switch to its top and was made of 1/8" solid brass tube.
I found using a slightly larger size rod still fit the drawer
components without any modification and reduced the play, twist, and
lost motion even further.

I bought a 2-pole, dual terminal strip so that the switch could be
easily attached or removed without soldering or wire nuts.  And should
the switch ever fail in the future, it's easy enough to snip off the
plastic handle altogether to retrieve the brass face plate.  Ta-da!

Adam Aceto
Burbank, California

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