On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:35:26 GMT, Doug White
wrote:

I have a new progressive reloading press (a Dillon XL650), which has an
automatic alarm device to tell you when the powder hopper is getting low.
It's basically a weighted piston that rides on top of the powder, and
when it gets down far enough, a knob on top hits a switch & the alarm
goes off. I'd like to store the thing in the hopper, but there's no off
switch.

I can easily make a small block (~ 3/4" cube) with a notch cut in it that
will hold the knob up high enough to miss the switch. However, I'd like
to make it highly visible as a reminder to remove it before use. I could
dangle a red tag off of it, but making it out of something like bright
red or yellow plastic would work OK. The catch is that I don't have any
eye catching colorful plastic in suitable blocks.

I checked McMaster Carr, and they have red Turcite in 1" rods ($$$, and
I'm not sure how red it is), red acrylic in sheets only, and the yellow
they have is Kevlar, which isn't a good screaming yellow, and could be
nasty to machine.

There are lots of options, from cutting up a small red aerosol can cap,
to paint or tape on any miscellaneous plastic. Paint or tape will
probably chip or peel over time. I have red & yellow caplugs that I
could make a solid core for, or I could find a piece of bright plastic to
use as a "flag" on a more boring colored plug. Nothing I've come up with
so far has set off my "tidy & effective solution" detector.

This is hardly a major project of any great import, but if anyone has any
ideas they'd like to suggest, I'd be happy to add them to the options
collection.

Thanks!

Doug White

Paint it. Spray cans of bright safety colors are available and should
last a while.

Pete Keillor