I'm making a lever-type throttle switch using the shaft of a potentiometer. The far side of the shaft is going to be supported by a bearing (ball or plain) of some kind. I am having trouble figuring out how to make a friction clutch so it stays where it was left. The safest and most compact way I've figured so far is to do something with that supporting bearing itself.
So...how do modify a bearing so it can rotate smoothly (nice smooth, wet, feel for the lever) but have it so there is enough friction so it stays put when released? Press-fit plain bushings seems like a bad idea. Ball bearings with some heavy grease or something (but then the grease might get all over the nearby PCBs).
I guess another idea is to clamp a piece of rubber against the sidewall and a shaft collar so that the shaft has to force the collar to rotate against the friction of the piece of rubber. But this requires a sufficiently long pot shaft which I don't have (the potshaft is already very short and there's barely enough room to run it through the width of the sidewalls and lever arm).
So...how do modify a bearing so it can rotate smoothly (nice smooth, wet, feel for the lever) but have it so there is enough friction so it stays put when released? Press-fit plain bushings seems like a bad idea. Ball bearings with some heavy grease or something (but then the grease might get all over the nearby PCBs).
I guess another idea is to clamp a piece of rubber against the sidewall and a shaft collar so that the shaft has to force the collar to rotate against the friction of the piece of rubber. But this requires a sufficiently long pot shaft which I don't have (the potshaft is already very short and there's barely enough room to run it through the width of the sidewalls and lever arm).
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