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I have decided the required electrical mods are beyond my
skills to achieve safely with this stop switch. So I went with a hinged,
mechanical "paddle" to push the saw's original OFF button instead. This
ensured that DeWalt's safety features and original wiring and
components were used without my amateur modification. The paddle would
provide a nice large "target" for my fumbling at the end of every cut.
Whereas the tiny, DeWalt OFF button is a complete waste of space and foolishly dangerous. I have no idea how they got away with not providing safe or even adequate switching. I needed to fit a hinge somewhere at the top of my paddle but was loathe to drill holes in the saw's plastic bodywork. It was then that I discovered I could trap one flap of a modified hinge under the original switch panel. This proved firm enough to work well using the two, original upper screws on the switch panel.
Then I added a perforated roofing
plate as my hinged switch "paddle." Its rocking movement is deliberately made very short. This needed a
rather precise bend in the plate to bring it close and almost parallel
to the ON/OFF buttons. I made too soft a bend at first which put the
plate much too far away from the ON button. I still needed to reach the ON
button easily and without "training." Hence the precise geometry
required at the bend. The plate also required cutting away at the bottom to fit around the Q/R DeWalt stand supporting brackets. I also had to cut away part of the hinge to fit within the plastic bodywork groove around the recessed switch panel. Having the hinge slightly skewed looks wrong but proved essential to clear the stand bracket reliably.
Making a hole large enough to
easily reach the ON button with one finger took a lot of filing. I should have daisy
chained a ring of holes and saved myself a lot of time had I know how
large the hole really needed to be. Eventually I had the plate switching
off the saw effortlessly with almost no free movement. Nor,
importantly, with the pusher actually resting heavily on the button. This might
cause rapid wear through vibration or even switch off.The OFF button is depressed by a stainless steel carriage screw with a large, smoothly domed head. I didn't want a pusher which would wear away the button's clear protective covering in the long term.
I shall screw a plate of bright red plastic to the face of the perforated plate when I can find a suitable donor. Perhaps a kitchen or hobby cutting board if I can find the right colour.
After using the saw with the new OFF paddle I'll be looking for an embossed surface for more tactile feedback. I found I was unable to decide whether I had actually found the paddle each time I wanted to stop the motor immediately after making a saw cut.Hey presto! A secondhand, red cutting board with a tactile surface texture. £1 equivalent from a charity/thrift shop. Only one side was marked so I turned the pretty side outwards. The switch paddle works a treat and easily works with a knee press when both hands are busy holding onto work on the saw table.
The earlier cloud has dispersed as today's temperature reaches 76F in bright sunshine. Twelve lower panels are carefully fitted but now I've run out of 4mm birch plywood. I shall have to make the 20 mile round trip to the builders merchants tomorrow with the trailer.I'm only getting four dome panels per 150x150cm sheet with nearly 1/3 of a sheet "wasted." This waste can only be used up on the very top panels. Even the shutter will need much larger panels. Fortunately the higher tiers are only 49.5cm in height. Allowing 6 panels per sheet.
Monday: I fetched three more sheets from the builders merchants so should have enough to finish the dome covering panels now. Sawed them into 50cm wide strips using out-feed rails clamped in work benches. The desire is to keep the blade low but the wavy plywood is difficult to keep flat enough.
Click on any image for an enlargement.
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