Variable Capacitor Extention Shaft

myminifactory

I needed to upgrade those low-cost Chinese variable capacitors to make them more useful in my radio projects. So, here's what I came up with. You can extend the shaft to your desired length. It fits perfectly on my collection of VCs from China and has a hole for mounting a knob with a screw going straight through to the VC. Most of the VCs I have require a 2.5mm screw with a metric fine thread. You can use this object in Tinker or any other design software to create a hole in your knob of choice that fits perfectly. Or, you can change the outside diameter to 1/4" or 6.25mm for a knob with grub screws. I've created some quite fancy Art Deco knobs using this method. Note: Don't use too long a screw as it can jam up the internals; only 2 or 3 mm of thread is needed into the VC. Good luck, everyone!