Found this Alumisol soft plastic casting resin which might work to make translucent or tinted buttons. A hardener is also available if the stuff is too flexible.
30B = 2 kΩ (1%)
LOL! You are correct, sir. I read it wrong. Even still, I used a 3.9k resistor (392) and mine wouldn’t light at all. Still holds that a 50k pot is far too much, agreed?
That may be do to the SMD Leds they sourced, but more likely to the color used. They are blue, right? I usually use something with a lower Vf. It’s all relative.
I totally agree on the pot. I saw a 20k, so I was going to go for that unless I could find a 10k or 15k.
These particular ones are red. That would probably explain it. ;)
They look great on the copper and stainless versions. :)
interesting. Did you modify it? or did they send different colored samples to everyone?
I think they look darned good on just about everything, even more unique when you mix colors like Djozz did earlier in the thread.
I hope the stock the buttons afterwords.
They sent mine red. The others got blue. I guess they wanted to test different colors. Just trying to dial in the proper resistance as the red are extremely bright with the same resistors as the blue.
What is good to confirm is that the lights function perfectly with a standard switch installed instead of the LED switches.
My X5 and X6 samples are blue, I detached one of the 2K resistors to cut the output and then covered the white nylon spacer with Kapton tape to further suppress it. The X5 on the left has 3 layers of Kapton, the X6 has one. I have pink boots on mine, where JM has clear boots on his red LED’s.
Too much variation for samples, but I’m really liking the soft purple glow I’m getting.
Compared to a single candle, the camera was set to duplicate what I saw, many shots were taken, this was closest to my vision…
and in full darkness, again as close to what I saw as possible…
I have since moved to only one layer of the Kapton tape on the X5.
When you get these finalized, with the potentiometer and all, I’d love to have a parts list so I could order the materials and assemble some boards. Like djozz, I have no background in electronics so the experimentation y’all do is beyond me. I can hack stuff together if told what parts to use though. 
Pffft who here has a background in electronics? Not me… Its not that hard to pick up on the little things, like you did with the lathe.
I ordered my latest boards from osh the same day I shared the link, and I already have the switches, but I haven’t ordered pots yet. If I’m the first to build the new design I’ll report back. I’m sure pyro has already ordered everything too.
Once we get 1 or 2 “final” designs tested, I might organize a small groupbuy from somewhere other than Oshpark to get thinner boards. I’m not sure yet.
Hey all. I’ve been lurking here for a few days (just found this forum while searching for components to play with). After reading through this thread in it’s entirety, I gotta say thanks for all the work so many of you have put into this idea.
Here are a few other translucent or glow tailcap sources for those who are interested in making various color effects, or are having trouble obtaining clear ones:
Blue translucent
Red translucent
various colors labeled glow or luminous
pink translucent glow
Blue and red links out of stock. Still waiting on sept29 order.
Unfortunately I might not have enough time for a test til Wednesday…
Looks good. Still haven’t received the translucent tail caps though.
Ok, I did have time to assemble half of it. It all fits (including 20awg bypass) and continuity looks good so far. The spring compression is pretty limited of course.
Looking good. Can’t wait to hear how it works.
OSHPark are taking their time with my latest order only got a notification that they have received from fab. Hopefully get them soon so I can try out the pot spring side soon. I will keep you all posted.
I have boards now with 'potpads' on the spring side, but the little pots are not in yet.
AboutJM's results, I would expect that even 30K still gave faint light with red leds. But battery type also matters a lot, no idea why but it does, 18650's give more light, that stays lit at lower voltages.
Ric lives! A package came through with the small white Omten switches I ordered, and part (10 pieces of 20 ordered) of the clear switch caps. :-)
Which site did you order from? I ordered from the one Steve linked back in Sept and don’t have anything yet.
Also got the clear tail caps today, 56 days after ordering them from Ric at http://www.edc-light.com (imo he runs 3 sites). But of course you’ve already heard of the Dutch expression: “better late than never”.