touching up black anodised aluminium

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rob_gould

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So I got a front panel made for this beat707 sequencer and unfortunately I miscalculated the cut out on the rear side for the LCD display. I enlarged the cutout with a dremel tool but due to being a clumsy oaf I slipped and marked the front of the panel accidentally. Whoops.

You can see the marks where the dremel slipped above and below the cutout in the attached photo.

Can anyone suggest the best looking way to touch this up? The black finish is matte rather than shiny so I'm not sure if painting it could be the answer. I could spray the whole thing and then redo all the infilling but that's a bit of a big job. I don't want to make it look worse so I'm tempted just to live with it, but thought I'd ask here first...

Does anyone have a clever suggestion?!

Cheers

Rob
 

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Yeah I thought about a marker pen but I dunno how it will look. A bezel would be the best option but it's a question of finding one.

I think I might need to just chalk this one up to experience!
 
I'd use a marker pen for now, quick and easy. It'll look a bit better than it looks now. Matte black anodized aluminium will start suffering in looks anyway once the unit is in heavy use.

Or how about matte black oil colour used for model building?
 
Another vote for a black sharpie. At worst it will be a really really really dark green or blue only visible from a certain angle. But at least it's matte. And nobody else but you will ever know.

Done this a countless of times. Whether rack rash, or my own clumsy (drill/dremel) hands.
 
Thanks for the tips all. Seems like marker pen is the way forward. Glad to hear I'm not the only clumsy individual round here too Kingston!
 
Get a little custom made bezel at Front Panel Express, should be very cheap.  You could even do it in a funky offset color.  Just get it in position and glue in on.

 
ruairioflaherty said:
Get a little custom made bezel at Front Panel Express, should be very cheap.  You could even do it in a funky offset color.  Just get it in position and glue in on.

Now that's an idea I like!

I did have a little go with marker pen last night but it's going to end up uglier than just leaving it alone.

Thanks for the suggestions all...
 
You could try some rubber edging like this, if you like the look and it will fit.  http://www.mcmaster.com/#trim-molding/=nf73pk
 
rob_gould said:
ruairioflaherty said:
Get a little custom made bezel at Front Panel Express, should be very cheap.  You could even do it in a funky offset color.  Just get it in position and glue in on.

Now that's an idea I like!

I did have a little go with marker pen last night but it's going to end up uglier than just leaving it alone.

Thanks for the suggestions all...

xylol/xylene will remove that unwanted marker if you want to start over...
 
even better - make it a feature and draw a wave from up front (left) of the LCD that goes past it - like a sound sample. but beware. you need to do it with the bad bad dremel tool..... ;-)

- michael
 
Ergh I hate it when this happens... I usually drill my panels after they come back from the engraver, that way I don't have issues with the art not aligning with the holes...

The only problem is sometimes I get too enthusiatic which sometimes means I slip and the drill piece ends up making its way across places on the panel that it shouldn't, the end result is a nasty mark which shows as silver on a black anodised panel.

I did the old sharpie method too but it isn't that convincing, my best touch ups have been using a really good quality matte black spray paint. I had mixed results with cheapie brands, I found that the good quality stuff adheres really well and doesn't scratch off.

I tape off the neighbouring areas around the scratch with masking tape so that only the most minimal area is exposed to the paint, spray away from a fair distance, let it dry then pull up the masking tape... it does the job
 
Ruari - I tried marker pen which make it look marginally better at a glance, but really quite untidy if you look at it properly. Of course marker pen is very dark purple rather than black, and the raw aluminium really exposed that.

So in the end I left it as it is, as a little daily reminder to take more care when DIYing!
 

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