Labelling Metalwork
 

I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is
painted black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What
options are open to a hobbyist?

Cheers

Ian

Labelling Metalwork
 

"Ian Thompson-Bell" wrote in message
...
I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is painted
black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What options are
open to a hobbyist?

Cheers

Ian

There are a number of options open to you:

1) The old way. Letraset (or similar) dry transfer letters. These require
some skill and patience to apply, and if you do decide to go this route,
make certain that the stock that you buy is fresh. If the transfers have
been sitting around for five years, it's a crap shoot whether they'll
transfer nicely to your panel or not. You'll also need to clear coat your
panel after applying the letters so that they don't get rubbed off with use.

2) P-Touch label maker (made by Brother) or similar. These print self
adhesive plastic labels, and the deluxe versions handle multiple fonts and
character sizes. If you use the laminated tapes that are available, you can
print black or white characters on a clear tape background, or, for your
application, white characters on a black background would probably be
satisfactory as well.

See: http://www.brother-usa.com/ptouch/

3) If you like playing computer a lot you can print a transfer on clear
self adhesive stock to cover your entire front panel, using a laser printer.
This can look great if everything is scaled correctly and you get the
transfer applied straight.

Personally, (2) is the method that I prefer and use regularly.

Best regards : Doug Bannard

Labelling Metalwork
 

On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:28:34 +0000, Ian Thompson-Bell
wrote:

I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is
painted black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What
options are open to a hobbyist?

Is this utility, or are you making up something to sell? If the
former, one of those label printers - the modern version of Dymo -
will do the job. If you're going for an expensive/retro look you
could stamp lettering onto copper plate and rivet it on, have it
engraved... Ask your local metalworker shop for ideas.

Labelling Metalwork
 

in article , Ian Thompson-Bell at
wrote on 12/23/07 8:28 AM:

I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is
painted black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What
options are open to a hobbyist?

Cheers

Ian


DATAK bran transfer letters are probably the most available and easy-to-use
solution.

Letters or titles are rubbed on with a pencil and a contact lettering sheet.
The labels are affixed with a matte or gloss acrylic spray (there is also a
"nail polish" type brush-applied fixative, but it is very hard to get even
results).

Raw parts without circuitry can be baked in an oven at low temperature to
speed up the curing process.

I didn't see their website in a 60 second search, but here is a distributor:

http://minute-man.com/acatalog/DATAM..._Letters_bu_Da
tak.html

Or Digikey. The former has pictures.

Jon

Labelling Metalwork
 

Ian Thompson-Bell wrote:
I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is
painted black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What
options are open to a hobbyist?

Cheers

Ian

Ian,

I've done this with silk screen. It's a little fussy for a one-off job
but it looks very nice when it's finished. Take a look at
http://www.timebanditaudio.com/47%20amp/carmen47.html. Probably not
close to what you're doing, but you'll get the idea. I prepared the
artwork with a vector drafting program using scans of the layout paper
to locate the controls. I printed the artwork on clear film on a
plotter that I have access to. I used that film to expose the silk
screen. It took a few tries to get the screen right, but after that
it's easy to do. I sprayed a coat of lacquer over the lettering to
protect it.

Best regards and Happy Holidays,

Raymond

Labelling Metalwork
 

Raymond Koonce wrote:
I've done this with silk screen. It's a little fussy for a one-off job
but it looks very nice when it's finished. Take a look at
http://www.timebanditaudio.com/47%20amp/carmen47.html.

What's with the blue glow? Isn't that usually a bad thing (tm) ?

Chris

Labelling Metalwork
 

On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:28:34 +0000, Ian Thompson-Bell wrote:

I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is
painted black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What
options are open to a hobbyist?


I've had Letraset Safmat recommended to me, I've not tried it yet though.
It is supposed to be almost invisible once burnished, but is only A4
size. I've no idea what it would be like in use.

Ordinary rub-down lettering certainly requires some skill if you are to
get it to look good.

--
Mick (Working in a M$-free zone!)
Web: http://www.nascom.info http://mixpix.batcave.net

Labelling Metalwork
 

In article ,
Raymond Koonce wrote:

I've done this with silk screen. It's a little fussy for a one-off job
but it looks very nice when it's finished. Take a look at
http://www.timebanditaudio.com/47%20amp/carmen47.html.

Raymond, how did you pick the 47 for this amplifier? Your line of
thought must have been rather interesting.


Regards,

John Byrns

--
Surf my web pages at, http://fmamradios.com/

Labelling Metalwork
 

Ian Thompson-Bell wrote:

I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is
painted black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What
options are open to a hobbyist?

Cheers

Ian

Undoubtedly the most professional way to do it is to design the art in
a page layout or other vector art programme on your computer and have
it professionally silkscreened onto the metal. Probably expensive for
a one-off, as there are several distinct labour-intensive processes
involved. Raymond Koonce published on RAT not too long ago a
description of how he did it himself in his shed.

Next, possibly easier for you to do yourself if you are dexterous and
patient, and certainly cheaper, is rub-down letter called Letraset
which you buy at any graphic art supply house. Also buy art tape,
because the trick is not to work directly on your black case but on
another special sheet (which you must also buy, it is called frisket)
with a pencil line or lines on it for alignment; when you have your
words in a straight line and correctly spaced, you lift them off the
frisket with the art tape and rub them through the art tape onto the
metalwork. Protect by varnishing. Amateurs with a lot of patience and
a good eye are supposed to be able to make a decent job at modest
cost.

Next, easiest of all to do, is to design whatever you want for the
front panel in full colour in a vector art programme on your computer
(anything that can handle postscript type is a vector programme --
even the better word processors will work). Reverse the entire thing
in the computer, make a PDF of the result, save the PDF in each of the
saving modes, copy to CD, then take to anyone who offers laser
photocopying and printing from your own disk. Ask them to print it on
a transparency as used in overhead projectors. You might have to bring
your own transparency film as the smaller instant print shops may not
carry stock. At the same place you buy the transparency film you can
buy colorless spray glue. Spray on printed side of transparency (after
guillotining to size -- if you print trim marks to the PDF, you can
cut it very precisely to size; this is the purpose of printing to
several versions of PDF, that there are different shrink-rates) and
glue onto the metal. If you want white text, you run into the
difficulty that you cannot print white. Simply make your design in
black on white, then invert so the film is printed black except where
you want letters. Then overspray the film white, or spray the
casefront white, and voila, white letters.

I haven't done any of this for years, though I have all the skills and
all the necessary connections, and don't get charged for little jobs
for my hobby. It's just too messy and tiresome. What I do instead is
somewhere in between:

Small printers, the kind of people who print business cards and
calenders for local businesses, also do plexiglass signs. They can
silkscreen on these, and that is usually much cheaper than
silkscreening on your case because they are set up to handle flatwork.
That can be very nice, especially if you reverse the design and get it
screened not on the front but on the back of the lexan, which gives
some depth to the assembly. But they can also machine-engrave designs
into the lexan. Get this done in reverse from the back, spray with
some colour (gold or silver is good), wipe off excess so that
everywhere not engraved is clean, spray with another colour (my house
colour is maroon, take it or leave it) or leave clear, and voila, you
have three dimensional script appearing to stand proud of the facia,
as if you had lettering handcut and chromed -- all for the price of a
sign for an office door.

That last idea is also the process required to remake a Quad II
nameplate if one of yours is cracked. (I assume everyone intelligent
in tube audio has a pair of Quad II salted away for reconditioning or
already perfect and saved for his old age. Don't disillusion me.)

If your amp is destined for studio use, I highly recommend the last
method. I put a reverse-engraved panel on a banksaKT88 amp I built for
a rocker down the road to use in his home recording studio, and years
later it still looks good because the entire facia wipes clean and the
lettering can't wear off.

HTH.

If you're interested in reprographics, some of my graphic design books
are he http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/T...%20GDitCA.html
and some more here, about halfway down the page below the novels:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/T...re%20Jute.html

Andre Jute

Labelling Metalwork
 

On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 16:30:09 GMT, mick
wrote:

On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:28:34 +0000, Ian Thompson-Bell wrote:

I am building a tube based mic pre into a 19inch rack case which is
painted black. I want to label the inputs, outputs and controls. What
options are open to a hobbyist?


I've had Letraset Safmat recommended to me, I've not tried it yet though.
It is supposed to be almost invisible once burnished, but is only A4
size. I've no idea what it would be like in use.

Ordinary rub-down lettering certainly requires some skill if you are to
get it to look good.

And I'm afraid the first thing you must do is ignore the autospacing
marks. They put the letters much too far apart.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com