dirtyhanfri
Well-known member
Hi
I'd like to share a few pics of my last building, a Green pre (V1), it was a smooth and fast building, and I'm so satisfied with the fact I had some troubles and I was able to solve them by myself, well, it's a simple build, but I used to have hard times understanding schematics.
I engraved the front panel in a local workshop, and well, the quality could be better, but I think my design skills could be better too.
In this pic, you can see some blurs in the numbers, I think I could solve it in the CAD design, making the lines overlap a bit, but not so sure.
That's the worst part, and that's my fault, I took off a bit of the white paint when cleaning the ink filling excess, maybe it wasn't the best idea to engrave a pre painted panel, or maybe it's just about the big letters and being not enough careful when cleaning.
Actually I'm quite happy with the finish. They engraved at 0.3mm depth. The design was done in FreeCAD (I'm a ubuntu user), I started making it in Front Panel Designer, which is great, but when the guy in the shop saw it, told me it would be so expensive, it had many lines, so I redid the design, never worked with CAD software before, it was hard to start, but it was worth the time.
Also there was something that I don't fully understand, the guy in the workshop told me to make the text's height 0.3mm smaller than I really wanted it, because, as he said, if you make 0.3 depth, the height will be increased 0.3 from the design, that looked weird to me, but in this pannel the sizing was not very critical so I didn't measured it seriously.
Any ideas or tips about the optimal text sizing in front panels?
Well, also the price was fine, 38€, no ink filling, just engraving, and they did it in the same day, took the panel in the morning and I had it after the lunch.
About the ink filling, I used acrylic paint and a piece of plastic, not so hard, used as a palette for press the paint and make it get into the engraved zones, everything was nice and smooth with small letters, even with the mid size ones, but it became a PITA with the big red text.
I used too much paint, but well, it was my first time. Also I learned a few things, I like this paint, it's a bit viscous and I think it make it more consistent, and also, the external layer gets dry faster and it makes the cleaning easier. After sweeping with the plastic piece I used a little brush and applied solvent in the not engraved zones so it could be easily removed later.
I have some thoughts about the big letters; they didn't get fully filled, so maybe it's better make them 0.2 mm depth instead 0.3, or just make another round of paint.
Anyway I'm not so sure about making texts so big, but, well, it was my first panel and I had the space left, so why not pimp it a bit?
I feel like I've talked too much and said nothing, why not share some pics and tips about?
This is a really great place, I took so much knowledge from here and I'm really thankful, about two years in DIY and couldn't be happier, thanks to everyone around here.
I'd like to share a few pics of my last building, a Green pre (V1), it was a smooth and fast building, and I'm so satisfied with the fact I had some troubles and I was able to solve them by myself, well, it's a simple build, but I used to have hard times understanding schematics.
I engraved the front panel in a local workshop, and well, the quality could be better, but I think my design skills could be better too.
In this pic, you can see some blurs in the numbers, I think I could solve it in the CAD design, making the lines overlap a bit, but not so sure.
That's the worst part, and that's my fault, I took off a bit of the white paint when cleaning the ink filling excess, maybe it wasn't the best idea to engrave a pre painted panel, or maybe it's just about the big letters and being not enough careful when cleaning.
Actually I'm quite happy with the finish. They engraved at 0.3mm depth. The design was done in FreeCAD (I'm a ubuntu user), I started making it in Front Panel Designer, which is great, but when the guy in the shop saw it, told me it would be so expensive, it had many lines, so I redid the design, never worked with CAD software before, it was hard to start, but it was worth the time.
Also there was something that I don't fully understand, the guy in the workshop told me to make the text's height 0.3mm smaller than I really wanted it, because, as he said, if you make 0.3 depth, the height will be increased 0.3 from the design, that looked weird to me, but in this pannel the sizing was not very critical so I didn't measured it seriously.
Any ideas or tips about the optimal text sizing in front panels?
Well, also the price was fine, 38€, no ink filling, just engraving, and they did it in the same day, took the panel in the morning and I had it after the lunch.
About the ink filling, I used acrylic paint and a piece of plastic, not so hard, used as a palette for press the paint and make it get into the engraved zones, everything was nice and smooth with small letters, even with the mid size ones, but it became a PITA with the big red text.
I used too much paint, but well, it was my first time. Also I learned a few things, I like this paint, it's a bit viscous and I think it make it more consistent, and also, the external layer gets dry faster and it makes the cleaning easier. After sweeping with the plastic piece I used a little brush and applied solvent in the not engraved zones so it could be easily removed later.
I have some thoughts about the big letters; they didn't get fully filled, so maybe it's better make them 0.2 mm depth instead 0.3, or just make another round of paint.
Anyway I'm not so sure about making texts so big, but, well, it was my first panel and I had the space left, so why not pimp it a bit?
I feel like I've talked too much and said nothing, why not share some pics and tips about?
This is a really great place, I took so much knowledge from here and I'm really thankful, about two years in DIY and couldn't be happier, thanks to everyone around here.
