We have two Akari Seiki horizontal mills that have a PITA door interlock. It cannot be completely bypassed. The control has the standard door open button, but with the door open you cannot move the machine on any axis nor turn the spindle on. All you can do is load and unload tools from the spindle.

We removed the door interlock key from the door so it can stay in the lock so we can move the machine with the door open, but as you can guess we cannot remove a tool from the spindle with the key in the door lock.

What I'm thinking is to wire a relay so that when the door open button is pushed it triggers a relay so that it either opens/closes the circuit so the operator doesn't have to reach up to pull the key out or in. Then when the operator loads the tool in the spindle he only has to hit the door open button which will put the relay in the state so that the control thinks the door is closed.

We have a couple operators that can't reach the key without a stool, I'm 6'2" and can barely reach it standing on my toes.

Does this seem like it should work? I believe there are a few unused relays in the machine that I can use once I figure out which state the lock has to be in.

Thanks.