Control Panel Lettering and gradations

[Tapsnap]

I've almost finished re-making the chassis for the amp I am building. I had to redesign the layout after I discovered I had to move a lot of stuff to reduce hum. Here  its where I am right now. So, I'm now wondering what you guys usually do about the lettering and gradations. Does someone produce water transfers for this? Is this something you silk screen? I'm curious what you do to get a professional look. And while you're at it do you chrome plate your chassis?


I got some 10gauge core 10 steel from a neighbor and bent the corners using heat.

[2deaf]

I hope your neighbor didn't put that Corten on his roof or on his walls.  Corten reacts with just about any metal except stainless steel, the rust runs off and stains your flatwork, nothing sticks to it, and it delaminates and crumbles if you use it in you BBQ.  I don't know anything about lettering.   

[cliffs_trip]

I've had luck producing my own water slide decals with inkjet water slide decal paper.

You can choose any font on your computer for the lettering and you can also print out graphics.

It comes in clear and white background so you can print anything in black and color on the clear and anything requiring white on the white background.

The biggest drawback I have found is you can't print white lettering, well, if you have one of those special printers which can print white ink then you may be set for white lettering.

If you want the tick marks or numbers listed on the controls you will need to work with a graphics rendering program to make them wrap around in a circle.  I use Inkscape because it is free and there are a lot of resources on the internet in regards to tutorials on how to accomplish just about anything.

The paper i use is from a place called the Bare Metal Film company.  The paper is the Experts Choice paper.  Here is a link to their page :

http://www.bare-metal.com/Experts-Choice-Decal-Film.html

I've also tried rub on letters and a product called rubonz, though I would steer you clear of it.  It was difficult to separate the decal from the backer paper and I ended up destroying half of the decals I printed and ended up having to redo a paint job on an amp due to them.  Only a good product if you don't want quality.

[Tapsnap]

Hey, thanks for the info cliffs_trip. Last night I watched a couple of youtube videos on etching using salt water and a car battery charger. Anyone had success with that?

[cliffs_trip]

I haven't read up on or done any etching, but dang, now I feel compelled to take a look!  If I was a cat, I'd already be dead! 

[Joel]

Some stompbox builders do salt water etching.  It's a bit easier with the smaller stompboxes.  Can look good.

Regarding the waterslide decals; I wonder if you could use waterslide decals on acrylic sheet (plexiglass you call it in the US)? 

I'm thinking to make a Marshall style faceplate you'd print reversed letters on the decal paper, slide them onto the back side of the acrylic faceplate.  Then once dry, spray paint over the lettering on the back of the faceplate with your choice of colour.  Might need to give the acrylic a light sand first so the paint can "key" into it.

[PRR]

There is a LOT of clever art and labeling on stompbox forums.

[centervolume]

I've been in the same spot, gathered the materials for the ferric chloride etching approach. You can check this out here

https://www.wikihow.com/Acid-Etch-Steel