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Mbira

Mbira

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
2,422
Location
Austin, TX
This may be common knowledge to some folks here, but I don't think I've seen it mentioned.  For the last couple years, I have had my name plates for my instruments made at a local trophy shop using sublimation.  A few weeks ago, I decided to ask about engraving and I found out that I can get it done very cheaply there.  Then I realized that this may be an extremely inexpensive way to get front panels made for a modular synth I'm building.  I had them do a test on metal (a sort of matte silver color) and one on Black plastic with white interior.  The plastic looked great and is like the old Hiwatt amps.  Check it out (pic isn't great, but panel is-text is clear, etc).  I used a piece of 1/16" steel as a backplate.  Cost $9.60.

1467309_10201902302175463_1540235946_n.jpg
 
When i did engravings i did use a trophy shop too. not expensive at all!
though they only do laser engraving and no cutting holes!

Looks really professional btw!
 
They were able to cut using the same laser (but only with the plastic-not the metal). That was one of the main motivations for me going with the plastic as my ADSRs are going to use faders and I didn't want to deal with that...  They had me put the parts I wanted cut all the way through just with red instead of black.  That was another great part-I just sent them a PDF. 
 
Trophy shops usually don't charge set up costs, that's why it is much less expensive for small quantities, or one time jobs.

Best, M
 
The same thing (in aluminum though) through FPE would have been $90+.  The only bummer though is this shop has 3000 trophys to make this week and can't make the rest of my panels until next Tuesday....
 
For a number of years, I've used a local trophy shop for panel legending.  In most cases, the rack boxes shown in the link (below) were Par Metal enclosures, and the trophy shop directly engraved the anodized aluminum front panels using a computer controlled X-Y machine.  The exception in the pix was sort of an experiment we did for the Langevin module racking.  That project used some plastic material the engraver used for other purposes, with a black outer layer and white beneath.  The engraving as well as the holes through the plastic laminate were done with his laser engraver.  That machine connected to a PC which had special-purpose printer driver software written by the engraver's manufacturer.  So, it "looked" like just another printer attached to the PC.  As it turned out, the guy at the local engraving company used DesignCAD software, the same as what I was (and still am to this day) using!  So, I drew up the panels in DesignCAD on my PC, emailed him the CAD files, and he had no problem making those four plastic legend plates from my files.

http://brianroth.com/custom/custom.html

Bri
 
just used the same technique from a trophy shop and it looks amazing.
the only bad thing is that my designed holes didnt aligned with those i drilled before on the alum front panel.
On my design files i did made a mistake on the distance between gain pots an 48v switch....i had to cut the piece in 2!
but still it is a nice solution..i might post some pix later!
 
heres a picture of how i ended up installing the plate.

You're right i never printed it on paper to check measurements.
My mistake was measuring from Hi-Z to gain...where i put the distance from hi-z to Phantom.
However im happy with the results.
 

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Brian Roth said:
For a number of years, I've used a local trophy shop for panel legending.  In most cases, the rack boxes shown in the link (below) were Par Metal enclosures, and the trophy shop directly engraved the anodized aluminum front panels using a computer controlled X-Y machine.  The exception in the pix was sort of an experiment we did for the Langevin module racking.  That project used some plastic material the engraver used for other purposes, with a black outer layer and white beneath.  The engraving as well as the holes through the plastic laminate were done with his laser engraver.  That machine connected to a PC which had special-purpose printer driver software written by the engraver's manufacturer.  So, it "looked" like just another printer attached to the PC.  As it turned out, the guy at the local engraving company used DesignCAD software, the same as what I was (and still am to this day) using!  So, I drew up the panels in DesignCAD on my PC, emailed him the CAD files, and he had no problem making those four plastic legend plates from my files.

http://brianroth.com/custom/custom.html

Bri
Click to expand...

Yeah, we use Par Metals as well as using a trophy shop for the legends. I haven't found an engraver that will etch right onto the front panel though. We have to get the thin aluminum self stick panels made up and put them on the boxes. I should explore some other techniques for engraving. Thanks for sharing.
 
look like ELMA to me  :)

http://uk.farnell.com/elma/023-4510/knob-grey/dp/1209777

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/browse.jsp?N=2031+202401&Ntk=gensearch&Ntt=elma+knob&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&locale=en_UK&appliedparametrics=true&getResults=true&originalQueryURL=/jsp/search/browse.jsp%3FN%3D2031%2B202401%26Ntk%3Dgensearch%26Ntt%3Delma%2Bknob%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchallpartial%26No%3D0%26getResults%3Dtrue%26appliedparametrics%3Dtrue%26locale%3Den_UK%26divisionLocale%3Den_UK%26catalogId%3D%26skipManufacturer%3Dfalse%26skipParametricAttributeId%3D%26prevNValues%3D2031%2B202401
 
warpie said:
look like ELMA to me  :)
Click to expand...

Think I agree.  Still trying to find a supplier who has them in stock in the right colour and the right size.

Thanks for your link - that looks like the exact knob for a 1/4" shaft but everything here is now metric and we have 6 mm shafts

Over here we buy 1/2" copper pipe by the metre, 25 mm nails by the pound and woodscrews by the gross.  Pints of beer, litres of oil...                   

Nick Froome
 

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