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Emergency Stop Button

by andrewwilson on October 24, 2016

Table of Contents

Emergency Stop Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Emergency Stop Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: The Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2: Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 3: First cut is the hardest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 4: More holes than one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 5: Striping is good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 6: Shrink rays to full . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 7: Finishing it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 8: Ta Da! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

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 Author:andrewwilson author's website
Married to my computer. Enslaved to my dog. Indebted to my bed. IT Professional. Technician. Part time Uncle, Full time Geek and Humourist. Maker of
things.

Intro: Emergency Stop Button

Here it is. My latest.

An Emergency Stop Button. What's it for? Any power tool/lighting/heater etc that may required to be stopped in a hurry.

I mainly made this for using with my handheld Angle Grinder, as they have a lock on switch, after it kicked back whilst cutting a bolt, jumped out of my hands, cut into one
of my hands, and dropped onto the floor and continued to run, making it hard to get to the power cord to cut the power, and being on a long lead, the mains switch was a
distance away.

It all could have gone a lot worse. Thankfully it didn't. Lessons learned. Other than a strong grip and clamp your work down, which I did, was, A- wear gloves, and B - get
a safety switch for portable power tools.

As my hardware store did not stock Emergency Stop switches for hand held power tools, I decided to make one. There may be some out there that I do not yet know off,
but none like this I am sure!

On with it then.

Image Notes
1. Paint dot Net to the Rescue!
Basic wiring diagram

Step 1: The Parts

The parts list is very basic.

A Cutout Switch that could be operated by being stomped/smashed/hammered down upon, work and still survive, and easily reset. Also I wanted a basic circuit. Less to
go wrong. So, a mechanical switch, which is reset by rotating the button top itself.

A box big enough to put all the parts in and take the abuse and be electrically safe.

A power cord.

Retaining clips to hold the power cord in the box.

And thats it!

Parts List:

L arge Jiffy Box ABS Plastic (15.5cm x 9.5cm x 5.2cm)

Yes I know it should be measured in millimeters, but hey, smaller numbers :) !

Mains Power Lead extension type

Cable Restraint Collets

Emergency Cutout Switch

Heat Shrink Tube

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 Image Notes
1. Large Jiffy Box. Any electronics store or Ebay has them.
2. Emergency Stop Button from Ebay. Cost about $3 to $4.
3. Cable Retention Collets.
Use to hold mains power cable in the Jiffy Box.

Step 2: Getting started

The first thing is to gather your parts and tools. Durr!

Here, we are going to use a Power Drill and various bits, Soldering Iron, Heat Gun (or lighter if you don't have one), Wire Cutters, Hemostats (surgical clamp. well worth
getting some), Screwdrivers - Standard and Philips head, a Nail or some other sharp pointy thing to mark the box for drilling holes, and last but not least, Pointy Nose
Pliers.

I think that is all the tools, other than myself! that I need.

First off, I started by disassembling the Safety Switch. This allowed me to get the correct size for the hole we are going to drill to fit it, and to position the switch on the
box, in the most central position.

Here you can see I used the yellow face plate to best find the layout. Putting it in closest to the centre of the box will give the switch the most stable position when using
this device.

Getting it close to centre visually is good enough here.

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Step 3: First cut is the hardest.
I started by drilling a smaller guide hole on the top of the box, the bottom plate or lid will be the base, and then we go up a few bit sizes to a bigger bit. It is always best to
start off smaller then go up in size. One, this reduces the chance of cracking the plastic, and two, you have a guide hole for the large drill bit, stopping it from slipping and
drilling off course.

As I used an electric hand drill, the hole was not perfect, but for our purposes, it will do nicely.

Next I checked the fit, with the switch. All looks good so far.

Step 4: More holes than one

Putting the switch fully together, we can check the fit and operation. The tightened button holds nicely in the box.

Now, to take it all apart again. More holes to drill.

We need to drill holes in each end of the box for the power cord. The holes will be measured off the collet size. One hole in each opposite end. Simple!

The type of Collets I used, tighten by screwing in.

As you can see, I have also knotted the cable, as well as use a collet restraint. Over time, the collets may loosen and lose grip, so the knot is an extra safety measure.
Crude, but effective.

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Step 5: Striping is good
Now we are onto striping the wires, soldering, putting on the heatshrink and then wiring the switch.

Some of the wires are going to be directly joined together, and the others put on the switch. In both cases, I have used solder on the wire.

Before doing so, note that the mains lead is cut in two, with one end being shorter than the other. I made the outlet side about 1.2 meters or 120cm long, and the wall
plug end cable with the remaining length.

You want a short length where you plug your tools into, so the switch is close to you. The short length is long enough in use to allow the tools to be use above your head
height and have the Safety Switch close by your feet, ready to be used if needed.

The wired that go on the switch are soldered, but not soldered onto the switch. They are held down by the retaining screws on the switch assembly. The solder on the
wire provided mechanical strength and keeps the wires together when the screw is tightened down. Plus, when you bend the wire into a curved shape it retains it better.
A bonus.

Next is joining the some of the wires together.

The basic circuit diagram shows which wires go on the switch and which ones are joined together.

Image Notes
1. One wire soldered so far. The other one is next.

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 Image Notes
1. The wire is soldered, but it is held in place with a screw, not soldered to the
switch.

Step 6: Shrink rays to full

Heat Shrink Tubes are great. Just thought that I would put that out there. They are fantastic. Not only can you use them for electrical products, but for other hobbies
projects too.

I have bought lots of tubes, in different sizes and colours. They only cost a few buckaroos, and kept in an organiser case, they will make your life easier. Here they are
doing an important role of insulating the bare wires in this project.

I could have gone and bought electrical joiners, but wanted to use what I already had, and plus, heatshrink works well, it's neat and tidy, and if done right, electrically
safe. (stops the electrons from escaping the wires to harm you!)

Because we are using mains power, I have used double tubing. Using two different size tubes, sliding one over the over, to provide a better electrical insulation.

When I soldered the wires, I used a hemostat to hold the wires side by side, and then soldered them together. I pre-tinned the wires before I joined them. You could use
pliers to hold the wires as you soldered them, but hemostats have a locking ratchet when you clamp them in place. Plus, they are stainless steel, so the solder wont stick
to them, and they draw the heat away, cooling the solder quickly, and preventing the heatshrink from shrinking before we get it into place.

Love my hemostats!

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Step 7: Finishing it
Here the wiring is completed. The wires are joined. The the active wired (brown) is attached to the switch.

On the Switch the Red Tab is the Normally Closed contacts (N/C) and the Green Tab is the Normally Open contacts (N/O).

We are putting the Brown (Active) wire onto the N/C contact points. These allow the power to flow till we hit or stomp on the big red switch button, then cutting the power
flow.

To reset the switch back to the On position, we simply rotate the red button in the indicated direction of the arrows on top. Such a simple and very useful device!

When screwing in the bottom plate of the Jiffy Box, there are usually included small rubber feet, which go in the screw holes on the bottom. Put these in to make a neater
looking box, and they are non-slip also.

You will notice a bit of empty mains power lead tube sitting on the switch. I did this to prevent the box from breaking when you hit the switch. This tube sits firmly between
the bottom plate and switch.

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Step 8: Ta Da!
Here it is. The finished product.

I thought I might need to add something to make the switch sit flat on the ground when I was using it. In use, the switch box and cable are enough to hold the switch flat
on the ground.

A few questions.

Why not a safety electrical cutout switch that detects shorts?

Well, that sort of switch will not stop a running power tool that you dropped, unless it shorts the power out. What we want to do here is stop the device from running,
quickly!

Nearly all industry machines, the good ones, have a safety cutout switch. Here you can have a simple one too.

Why not built into the tool you are using?

Well, if it is on the power tool, how can you safely turn it off?? Hence the switch! :)

Why use those type of parts?

Because I am cheap! Well, no actually, oh, ok, I am. But I wanted to build something that works well, is simple to build and use, and is cheap. If it cost more, I still would
have built it. But cheap and effective is better.

Why have you written so many steps and so many photos?

Most people complain that I do not have enough. Maybe I need more? Hoping to cover all my bases! :D

Hope you like it! Thanks for reading.

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Comments
1 comments Add Comment

Anirudh Ralhan says: Oct 25, 2016. 5:23 AM REPLY

Safety first. This can really come in handy some times.

Wish you a quick recovery☺☺

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