[sdiy] Reproductions of Vintage Synth Parts (how are they made?)

[Ken Elhardt]

Thanks Tom Arnold for that info.  It's nice to get general pricing for
doing this kind of stuff.  That's some of the info I was looking.  If
somebody needs a few thousand knobs for a product it seems like it
could be quite practical.  I believe most of the Roland knobs and
slider caps are just plastic and not phenolic (which I had to look
up).

And regarding Bob Weigel, now that you brought it up, it reminded me
that my father had created a few custom parts for some German helmets
he made.  He used some kind of plastic-like resin in molds he made,
but can't remember what the molds were made out of for those pieces.
He used plaster molds for other parts.  Picture below if interested.
The spike on the right helmet, plus the circular side pieces where the
chinstrap is connected to are plastic resin.  Some of the other parts
are bar solder.  He'd sculpt most of the parts out of clay and then
make molds from that.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p122/Elhardt/Merlin%20Elhardt/Pickelhaubes.jpg

Something I thought about a long time ago for doing single pieces or
just a few pieces, would be to use a computer milling machine.
Roland's CAD division used to make one about 20 years ago that was
relatively inexpensive.  It could carve just about any shape out of a
block of plastic.

-Elhardt