As the kids like Among Us and wanted their own emergency meeting bottom like the one from the game / cartoon:
You know, just in case they suspect someone in the apartment is a murder and need a meeting… Anyway, the kids and I started to draw some sketches and I designed a bottom for them in Fusion 360. All according to the their specification.
I might have taken it a bit too far, but I wanted the button to work like a real push button and also added the option to fit a micro switch at a later point.
Having a springloaded design also meant that I needed a mechanism to prevent the top part from falling off, but still run smoothly. inspiration for this was a bayonet lock like this:
..and working like this:
To create the base for the button and make it look like the one from the cartoon, my oldest kid spray painted a cardboard plate with black paint and added some yellow tape to it.
It fulfills the kid’s specifications, but I am not too happy as the two parts can get stuck if you push it down too much off-center.
A bit of sanding fix it, but if I should ever redesign a large pushbutton, I would put the support closer to the edge. Not really a surprise, but another lesson learned. :)