3d printed switch

2 Articles

A Simple Switch For Simply Too Much Current

March 23, 2026 by 38 Comments

A switch is simple: connect two pieces of metal together and bam! Except, it’s not that simple at high currents. How much current? Just about 400 car batteries worth would certainly cause some issues. This is the issue that [Technology Hobby] hoped to fix with his clever switch design.

While many content creators are great at finding or making high-current sources (looking at you, Styropyro), their switches can’t always hold up to the abuse. [Technology Hobby] found that many of the switches used by these creators had issues based on an inconsistent and limited contact area. Making a bigger contact patch is always fairly easy; keeping those contacts from skipping can be a bit more difficult.

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3D Printed Switch Uses Paperclip

May 21, 2020 by 11 Comments

We live in a time when all manner of electronic components are practically a mouse click away. Still, we like to see people creating their own components. Maybe a stock part won’t fit or isn’t immediately available. Or maybe you just want to build it yourself, we get that. [Aptimex] shows off a design for a 3D printed slide switch that uses a paperclip for the contact material.

Of course, it had better be a metal paperclip and we’d make sure the shiny metal was pretty conductive. Of course, you could probably use thick wire to get the same effect. It sounds like [Aptimex] was inspired by an earlier Hackaday.io project that created a few different kinds of switches using similar techniques.

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