Finding Low voltage wall plate

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al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
Probably the best plan is to buy a 3g decora plate, and......
+
= close enough.
Yeah, given the alternatives, I agree with you. From your earlier posts, I read that you have access to the decorative brushed nickel plates in a 3 gang decora, so that's perfect.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Like I said, I want all these buttons to look the same.
There's many throughout 6000 sq ft house. They are used to enable or bypass alarm zone.

I thought you were looking to duplicate the switches on the other plates. I don't see which switches you want to duplicate.
 

al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
I thought you were looking to duplicate the switches on the other plates. I don't see which switches you want to duplicate.

I think the round thing in the center of his photo's loose device hanging out of the open 3 gang box is a push-button low voltage switch. The thing slightly above it is the indicator light.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
I'm willing to spend about $200 to get it done.
They are spdt push buttons and neon lights designed to mount to 1/4" holes.
It's doubtful I can one custom made for that amount..........

I appreciate the good advice.
If it is really 12V, then those are not neon lights. Neon takes approximately 60V DC (or AC peak) to conduct.
 

S'mise

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
I thought you were looking to duplicate the switches on the other plates. I don't see which switches you want to duplicate.
Not duplicate, but keep each grouping looking similar throughout house.
(There are 9 toggle switch for lighting at this location but unrelated to top left 3g spaghetti mess of a plate)
That's why I haven't updated to more modern switches and led indicators.
Just want all plates in area to be the same.
 
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S'mise

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
Good point. They're probably not neon but look similar. I've never seen it lit up as alarm system isn't powered up. It's a common Ademco alarm system with keypads but most sensors are hardwired.

It is 12v (Battery backup) so I assume indicators are too.
Probably a tiny incandescent lamp like a Christmas light bulb?
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
1
 

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S'mise

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
Sorry Larry. I should've been more clear. I want to reuse original lv switches and indicators and mount them to a 3g plate that matches the other "steps" style.
I was hoping a 3g blank plate existed but it looks like I'm going with plan B.

Sorry for wasting your time researching them.
 

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
Can you show us what one switch and one light look like close-up?

Agree. And also agree that the switch and lights can be had from any electronics supplier. If I can see it better, it might even be a standard security system item from ADI.

How many of these locations are there? If there is only that one it sounds like you are going to an awful lot of trouble. Probably would be easier and cheaper to change all the other plates in the house to match what you can get for that one!

-Hal
 

S'mise

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
My inquiry was just about matching switchplate.

I just need the plate,original switches are stuffed in box and should be fine to reuse.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
We're trying to help you use the existing buttons and lights with matching plates by coming up with a way to mount them to plates you can find. That's why we're asking for pics that show how they mount.
 

al hildenbrand

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Electrical Consultant, Electrical Engineer
We're trying to help you use the existing buttons and lights with matching plates by coming up with a way to mount them to plates you can find. That's why we're asking for pics that show how they mount.

Asked and answered already. S'mise (John) arrived at it by post #15. Respectfully, Larry, you're repeating. in greater detail. what was arrived at as the answer.
 

Todd0x1

Senior Member
Location
CA
The 1g blank plates are only $4.xx. If you have someone with a manual milling machine might be worth it to see how cutting one down comes out. (The idea is to use 3 plates, trim one side of each of the outer plates and both sides of the center plate an equal amount. Done right you should be left with two barely visible vertical lines where the 3 plates butt together) I feel like a mill is the best way (short of a more exotic process) to get a clean square cut edge, accurate enough where you won't have a gap between plates. A saw won't do it.
 

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
My inquiry was just about matching switchplate.

I just need the plate,original switches are stuffed in box and should be fine to reuse.

Ok fine!

This is like any other job where the customer has some God awful designer plates from God knows where and they expect you to match them. Ain't gonna happen, and respectfully, all the ideas suggested for Frankenplates are going to look like crap. If your customer is that fussy that they have to have that stepped plate, I can't believe that they would be happy with something cobbled together.

If this is a one-of, I would just get a 3 gang SS blank plate and drill some holes. If there are more or the customer is unreasonable, change all the plates in the house to something you can get.

-Hal
 
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