Infilling the line on a winged knob

[rob_gould]

I have some of the excellent red winged knobs that Chuck has been selling.  For those that don't know, they look like this :

I want to make them look like this, with a white line indicating which way round the knob is pointing :

Does anyone have advice on type of paint or clever techniques to do this neatly?  I'm thinking maybe the front panel engravers here who have experience infilling front panels might know a trick or two?

I am pretty cack handed when it comes to very delicate jobs like this and I don't have any spare knobs, so it has to be done right first time! 

The plan, should no one come up with any better ideas, is to use Humbrol enamel paint (airfix model paint) which I hope will be durable, a very thin brush and paper towel soaked in thinners to get the paint off quickly if I make a mess or need to remove excess. 

Any other suggestions anyone?

Cheers

Rob

 

[ruffrecords]

At Neve back in the 70s we used Dulux paint. There was a guy who sat in a little room with an engraving machine and a tin of white Dulux paint and all day long he engraved the key caps for the push button switches on Neve consoles. I watched him rub the paint on with a cloth then wipe off the excess with another.

Cheers

Ian

 

[rob_gould]

Haha ok - as easy as that eh!

Many thanks for your reply.

Rob

 

[gemini86]

Test that on an inconspicuous spot, maybe underneath the skirt, so you know the thinners will remove the paint without leaving a white haze, due to the textured surface...

 

[Majestic12]

I would recommend using a medical syringe + needle. You can fill up a small amount of white paint (maybe mixed with a little bit of paint thinner) and slowly put it into the gap. I know that some front panel engravers do it the same way.

 

[rob_gould]

yeah I thought I'd read somewhere about using a syringe. I may have one somewhere so it is another potential option.

Thanks for the input all

Rob

 

[PRR]

Wax crayon.

 

[gemini86]

Wax crayon.

Also works for infilling the engravings on an AR-15 pretty well...

Scratch it in, wipe it off, hit it with a bic lighter for a second to make it glossy...

 

[Kingston]

yeah I thought I'd read somewhere about using a syringe. I may have one somewhere so it is another potential option.

a syringe is as steady as your hand. I found this out the hard way. ended up using a tiny brush instead.

Far more important is wiping the excess off. I used a piece I had ripped off a T shirt that was going in the bin. Moistened with IPA. Not the beer, but the rubbing alcohol!

 

[njm]

white chinagraph pencil. Plenty of them lying around

 

[rob_gould]

So I thought I'd share the results of my efforts in this task.  In the end I have done a pretty average job I'd say - this turned out to be an extremely fiddly job.  Thue method I chose was the quickest and required the least amount of faffing about, but the results are by no means 100%

I bought a paint pen which claimed to be 0.8 - 1.2mm nib size, but when it turned up there was no way the nib was going to fit neatly into the groove I wanted to fill...

 

[rob_gould]

So I carefully cut the nib into a very thin chisel shape using a Stanley knife...

 

[rob_gould]

This still wasn't quite as neat or accurate as I hoped, and I found myself still having to clean excess paint from outside the groove I was trying to fill.  The problem here is that the anodised knobs are slightly rough, not totally smooth, so slowly but surely the white paint starts to permanently discolour them slightly.

But in time, all 9 were filled.  Apart from the slightly clumsy finish on a few of them, I made one other c**k up.  Bonus points to the eagle eyed G-DIYer who can spot the error from the below picture.

 

[rob_gould]

Close up of the finished product...

 

[warpie]

look quite cool to me 
I'll try it, thanks!

ps. did you paint the wrong side in a couple of these or is just my idea?

 

[gemini86]

look quite cool to me 
I'll try it, thanks!

ps. did you paint the wrong side in a couple of these or is just my idea?

I can only spot the one...

 

[12volts]

The knob furthest left is 180 degrees out for the highlighted line.


Frank B

 

[tomas1808]

Dude, it looks awesome. It certainly makes them look much better. Good job!