Buttons for old German boxes

[malcolmbebb]

Hi,

I have a couple of older German export boxes that I fancy restoring for a bit of fun.  These boxes have a habit of losing their buttons leaving just a wooden stub, or a remnant of glue on the lever...
So I need to sort out some new buttons - anyone done this? What did you use?
I have some Delrin that I could turn to size, but I think it will be difficult to stick so looking for other suggestions.
cheers

Malcolm

[DDF]

For cheapness dowel works okay. if you round and polish the tips (using a lathe or drill) then lacquer with epoxy or polyurethane varnish ,de -nib in the drill etc then glue in place. Bone also glues well if you have some old scrap buttons you cold cut down or get hold of some bone and make them from scratch. I expect there are other possibilities but know from the past ramin dowel works well and is readily available. Regards David.

PS. if it is just the ends of the button you could try using piano key veneers which can be ivory or celluloid both glue well.

[wschruba]

You said turn to size, so you must have a lathe (or lathes?).  Piano keys are made from basswood, which would be a good choice.  They're pretty well available from people throwing out pianos (which I assume they do in the UK as equally as the USA...).  As a bonus, you would have access to the bone/plastic tops which could be used to fashion a keytop for the buttons when you are done.

[Don Taylor]

Re. Glueing Delrin.  You cannot glue items onto Delrin but you can glue items into Delrin - sort of.

 

If what you are doing is glu(e)ing something into a hole in Delrin then make the hole a close fit and then use a moisture-cured urethane glue (Gorilla glue in NA) which expands as it sets.  The result is not glued per se but a very tight friction fit.

[malcolmbebb]

Thanks for the thoughts. I do have a small lathe, so I will try some of these.

[Clive Thorne]

Could you put a slight undercut groove on the inside of the delrin/nylon, so that you are not just relying on the friction fit of the glue to the delryn, but also the action of the glue filling the groove?