SSLTech's New Arrival Part 2

http://www.sethglassman.com/LA2apanel.jpg
http://www.sethglassman.com/Bloo1176s.jpg

Keef wrote:

Attached are two pictures? One is of the LA2a, now that it?s finally complete. ?Since the front panel hinges down to work on it, I wanted to leave the panel graphics until last so that they wouldn?t get scratched every time, opening the front panel to work inside it.

 

It?s my own method of transferring?

 

Clean the panel with lighter fluid (Naphtha).

 

Gently mist a light covering of 3M ?Super 77? spray (about $8 at Office Depot for a can that will do a hundred panels!)

 

Get a few pages of ?Laser Labels? and peel the labels off. ?throw the labels away and print your panel design ?reversed- onto the backing.

 

You have about 30 minutes working time with the super 77. Leave it 3 minutes to go tacky, then place your printed designs onto the panel, smooth them down so that they stay in place and finally rub the markings on with a pencil. (Not too sharp or it can go through the paper!)

 

Peel off the backing, making sure that the design transferred on. Leave the Super 77 about an hour to dry (in a dust-free area!!!) then start misting a few light coats of clear lacquer (I used ?Krylon?) as a protective coating, to make sure that the design doesn?t easily chip off.

 

The results speak for themselves!

 

-The next picture is of my next project? it?s already well under way, as you can see! ?On the left you might just catch a glimpse of a couple of components for the project that will follow?

If you could host the two pics, it would rock totally? That way everyone can see what can be done with my labeling method! (Chest swelling with pride!) ?Hey, when I set my mind to it, the job gets done right!!!

 

 It looks great to me!!!

:guinness: :sam: :guinness: :sam: :guinness: :sam: :guinness: :sam:

Get a few pages of ?Laser Labels? and peel the labels off. ?throw the labels away and print your panel design ?reversed- onto the backing.

Click to expand...

Is this done with a inkjet or a laser printer? That panel looks good. :thumb:

Cheers,

elco

laser

[quote author="jrmintz"]

Keef wrote:




It?s my own method of transferring?



Clean the panel with lighter fluid (Naphtha).



Gently mist a light covering of 3M ?Super 77? spray (about $8 at Office Depot for a can that will do a hundred panels!)



Get a few pages of ?Laser Labels? and peel the labels off. ?throw the labels away and print your panel design ?reversed- onto the backing.



You have about 30 minutes working time with the super 77. Leave it 3 minutes to go tacky, then place your printed designs onto the panel, smooth them down so that they stay in place and finally rub the markings on with a pencil. (Not too sharp or it can go through the paper!)



Peel off the backing, making sure that the design transferred on. Leave the Super 77 about an hour to dry (in a dust-free area!!!) then start misting a few light coats of clear lacquer (I used ?Krylon?) as a protective coating, to make sure that the design doesn?t easily chip off.



The results speak for themselves!

:guinness: :sam: :guinness: :sam: :guinness: :sam: :guinness: :sam:[/quote]

Wow, nice one Keith! :thumb:

Thanks for sharing the method with us, they look f*ckin AWSOME!!! :thumb: :grin: :guinness:

:grin:

-Yes, Laser printer. For the LA-2a graphics most can be done with a black & white printer, but the red "Teletronics" logo had to be done on a colour printer... Go to Kinkos if you don't have one at work... :green: :green: :green:

Okay, It's Friday, I've done some monster DIY this week... it's definately going to be Guinness time tonight!!! :green:

:guinness: :guinness: :guinness:

Keith

[quote author="SSLtech"]:grin:

-Yes,Go to Kinkos if you don't have one at work... :green: :green: :green:

Keith[/quote]

Heh, sadly or should I say fortunately that's where I work :roll:

still setting up my own schematic library ....... :shock: :green: :shock:

Ha, that's what you call "taking full advantage of your opportunities" Learner!

Keith,

Looking great! I like the way the lettering looks "flat" against the panel- I think this must be because you're applying a very small layer of ink compared to the lazertran-style method which still relies on a solid "slide" of material below the lettering.



Did you manage to get screen-shots off the analyzer display?

Mark

[quote author="jrmintz"]

Keef wrote:
You have about 30 minutes working time with the super 77. Leave it 3 minutes to go tacky, then place your printed designs onto the panel, smooth them down so that they stay in place and finally rub the markings on with a pencil. (Not too sharp or it can go through the paper!)
[/quote]

After you print with the laser printer onto the backing is there any length of time in which you need to get the graphics transferred. I guess what I'm asking is if I printed onto the backing with a laser printer (say at work, using old used lable backing=free for me!) and can't get it home for a few hours, do you know if it would work, or would the ink dry out, or does it not matter if it the ink dries out. Thanks. Nathan

The 'ink' in laser printing is a dry plastic powder that is deposited onto the paper and melts under heat to form the uniform black area. It doesn;t dry out or anything, but the backing paper is very non-stick... you have to be careful not to fold, scratch or even bend it too much, or the non-stick backing will come unstuck prematurely!

Also, having it sit around collecting dust, or picking up any grease will spoil the result. There's no absolute time limit, but if you're going to wait weeks or months before doing the panel, I'd file them away at a cool temperature, in a safe, protected place, like a box, so that they won't get bent, scratched or contaminated...

I have a laser printer at home, so there's no problem for me... well, not with Black & white, anyhow!!! :green:

Keith

hmm

that has me thinking...

laser toner bonds from the hat of the fuser..

have you tried taking a heat gun to the transfer before spraying the clear coat?

just wondering what it might look like

also thinking...

instead of the tack spray... what about simply ironing the backside of the paper to get it to stick to the panel?

I bet ironing on would be good, just like press and peel. speaking of, I bet making labels with blue press and peel would be good too. Its the same process anyway, print with a laser printer and iron on.

Either way, I still think you'd want the clear coat over it for protection and from my experience with clear laquer on metal panels, I think it might actually be a little easier to get a thick coating that is uniform and not too runny in areas if there is a tack coating already on the metal, that might be worth a try in itself... Probably looks different too. Another cool trick with clear coat is putting on a few layers before they dry completely, the layers in between as they dry cloud and crack and that often looks really nice, I have a panel that turned out awesome completely by accident like that, I should try to find a photo of that.

dave

[quote author="soundguy"]I bet ironing on would be good, just like press and peel. speaking of, I bet making labels with blue press and peel would be good too. Its the same process anyway, print with a laser printer and iron on. [/quote]
Dave the press-n-peel puts a light blue coating over the colors you're using... bummer. The heat needed to transfer it to the metal is preposterous as well. basically the panel acts as a heatsink, drawing the heat from the decal... it doesn't work very well, I tried it before the "spray-on tack" idea.

-That's the Bezel in the pic, BTW. I emailed you about them. :grin:

Keith

Hi keith,

great idea. I wanna try this soon. I have two questions:

1. If the frontpanal is original black, can I spray them silver and will the super77 work with the spayed one ?

2. I cannot find the super77 but other 3M called : Spraymount , Fotomount , Displaymount , Remount. The difference is , that you have time to remount your layout. Which one shall I use ?

Cheers
Jürgen

If they're cheap enough, do what I did when I was 'developing' the method... get some old scraps of metal -silver or painted whatever light colour you like- then try each adhesive. Youhave to get a feel for how much working time, and how long to wait before applying the transfers anyway, so the first one or two tries should be on scrap metal anyway.

If things go wrong, with super77 you can clean off the design with naphtha ('Zippo lighter fluid is pure nahptha) and a cloth. Since you might make mistakes on your final panel and have to re-do it, it is important to make sure you know what solvent to wipe the panel clean with, so you can start again.

Using Super77 and lighter fluid/nahptha, you can have unlimited tries without ruining the panel. Once it's right, just let it dry out for a while, then seal it in with some lacquer.

Keith