Metal work - Paint

I seem to be having a few problems trying to paint my front panels...

What I want is a non-gloss finish, that I can then put dry transfer lettering on and then protect with a varnish or something....

I have tried
Spray Can - Halfords Car Paint Grey Primer - this seems to work..

Then I have tried Spray Can - Blue Car Paint (Ford) but this seems to shiny...
I have also tried blue enamel spray paint... this was too shiny as well...
And when I put on the dry transfers and sprayed Dry Transfer lacquer over the top of it... it made the dry transfers "bleed" and the paint became wet all over again..

Come on you non shaeffer guys - how do you do it?

Simon,
Getting a flat appearance with paint is easily achieved by using an 800 or 1000 grit wet n dry paper.
Let the paint dry, take the 'wet' paper accross the panel until you loose the shine. Try to avoid too much pressure at the edges. as you'll soon go through the paint and expose what is underneath.
The only suggestion with regard to letter bleeding is to put the laquer on as dry as possible. i.e. many VERY light coats (just dust) with plenty of drying time between.

pedro

For diy panels i've been using Electrolube MBP (matt black paint) on bare metal with success. For transfers, I went to http://www.letraset.com/uk/ and made up custom transfers (white/silver foil etc) - around £30 or summin for a full A4 sheet which u can cram alot on (for a few dif projects for instance). After the transfers are put on I'd spray a good few coats of regular clear metal laquer to seal it all and then go over the surface gently with some fine wirewool to give it a smooth matt finish - works great :thumb:

Funny, I came on here this morning wanting to ask the same question, only about mic bodies!

I can't hep you with the paint part of your question, but I would urge you to consider using Lazertran instead of the dry transfer stuff for panel markings... It is superior in EVERY aspect (ease of use, durability, appearance AND price).

Peace,
Al.

i've used lazertran and it def aint easier then using custom dry transfers which also look better on the panel - like proper silkscreen graphics...bright pantone colours n foils look much better then baked lazertran colours

As i said, you do need a good few coats of laquer on top to protect the transfers tho...

[quote author="daArry"]i've used lazertran and it def aint easier then using custom dry transfers[/quote]

I'm sure with custom dry transfers it is easier to make a panel than with the regular stuff, which is what uk03878 seems to be using. Either way, the dry transfer stuff I've used is kinda fragile compared to Lazertran, and I personally find baking a panel easier than applying several coats of varnish (but I may be biased, because I can't for the life of me apply a good even coat of paint on anything! :roll.

[quote author="daArry"]look better on the panel[/quote]

Again, that may be the case with the custom-made stuff, but not with the regular off-the-shelf transfers. It's been my experience that a properly baked Lazertran panel looks just like silkscreening as well - you even get the texture of it.

YMMV!

Peace,
Al.

Lacquer over enamel is a bad idea. Usually enamel over lacquer is okay though.

HTH!

What, you don't like orange peel? :razz:

...than with the regular stuff...

Click to expand...

Ah ye the regular stuff can be a bit messy as you've gotta do it letter by letter, but with the custom stuff you can do 'chunks' of layout that fit over the panel in single peices but have a few labels/graphics etc there to do it all in a few goes, comes out clean (most the time ;p)...

Here's a cpl pics of the midibox_lc I done after a facelift with the above proceedure I used (hope the auto-resize kicks in):

It's been my experience that a properly baked Lazertran panel looks just like silkscreening as well - you even get the texture of it.

Click to expand...

True say I only tried once and did make a pig's ear of it - guess it's kinda like pcb etching, once you've got a method sussed it's gravy...

Cheers :thumb:

Holy Cow. 1 MB for two pics, New record!
Almost as slow to load as some of my threads. :razz:

That looks amazing, daArry!

NICE work! :thumb: :thumb:

The mutts nuts in "How to Paint Enclosures"

http://www.euronium.de/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=425&

What I want is a non-gloss finish, that I can then put dry transfer lettering on and then protect with a varnish or something....

Then I have tried Spray Can - Blue Car Paint (Ford) but this seems to shiny...
I have also tried blue enamel spray paint... this was too shiny as well...

Click to expand...

If you`re going to varnish over the paint, why is there a problem with the paint being too shiny ? Its strikes me that the shiny/matt element to your finish will be solely down to the varnish & not what`s underneath.