Cheap and cheerful labelling

[albatross]

I use a similar technique with glossy adhesive backing paper and a B&W laser printer, then use laquer to give the front some shine depth and protection

might have to try out the plastic thing though.

A Neovibe I finished last night.

[calculating_infinity]

Damn Processaurus!  That looks great!  I'm with Paul M., that looks too good to be hand written.  Thanks for the original post gez.  I'll have to try this sometime soon.

[Processaurus]

What, its not a font, I have perfect bubbly cursive, like a high school girl!  .  Its from Illustrator CS, it's called Wendy (something).  Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.  I'm happy with how it came out, especially because the Lucite seems hard enough to resist casual scratches, at least as well as the powder coating.  It was a few steps to do, but all of them were easy, and the plastic is easy to machine with wood tools.  This is a winning way to casually do printed graphics.

I've been trying to figure out how to drill the plastic, decal, and box at the same time, because not only does it save time, but it also the holes in the paper decal come out cleaner.  But trouble is I'd like to still be able to drill little holes just in the box (for the pot's locater tabs, and also for standoffs to hold the circuit), and have the decal cover them up.  Even though some people here have successfully drilled them from the inside without going all the way through, that still seems like too delicate a job, so I think its either make the locater tab sacrifice, or not use adhesive initially on the decal, so you can get at the box once the main holes in the plastic/decal/box sandwich have been drilled.  But will the decal tend to scoot around/rotate under the plastic during drilling, if it isn't stuck down?  Probably just have to try it and see.

Albatross, your graphics remind me of TIE-Fighters.  An imperial vibe.  Actually, looking at that project, it strikes me that one way to stick the plastic plate down is by using the box upside down, so the bottom lid is the top of the pedal, and the countersunk screws also hold down the plastic, in the corners.

Gez, good idea about the eddystones.  Rounding the corners just took a second on the belt sander, but admittedly each corner is different.

[albatross]

Albatross, your graphics remind me of TIE-Fighters.  An imperial vibe.  Actually, looking at that project, it strikes me that one way to stick the plastic plate down is by using the box upside down, so the bottom lid is the top of the pedal, and the countersunk screws also hold down the plastic, in the corners.

Hi, haha, I think its the black and white and angles, but i think you may watch too much starwars I did consider turning the box upside down, the box im using i got from rapid, and they are HUGE!, but were very cheap, they are more than twice as tall as a standard 1590 box. Ill have to get hold of some plastic to try it out!

[Processaurus]

Brett, interesting stuff about the bending.  Sounds like a nice tool.  I tried sticking a piece in the toaster oven at the 300 degrees recommended in the lucite company's notes, but it got "crazed"(the technical term!), and plus I couldn't get a good sharp bend with it.  I just tried the heat gun and vise, making a metal shield/forming aid with some scrap sheet metal and a clip, that clipped on the side not stuck in the vise, that was much cleaner, though it wanted to bend about an 1/8 of an inch higher than the vice.

Making your own plastic stuff is so funny, because if you do it too well, it looks cheap and manufactured.

[Processaurus]

Yikes, whatever you do, if you are holding your plexi down with a screw or two, resist the urge to countersink the hole.

I had a plexi meltdown after making a bunch of pedals with gez's technique.  Was making a big pedal with a bunch of those little PCB mounted alpha pots like you see in sequencer pedals, so there was nothing holding down the top edge and it needed a couple screws in the corners.  Did a good job machining the screw holes, including tapping the aluminum so there wasn't a need for a nut inside, and used countersunk screws.  I put it together nice and tight, and cleaned up the shop, only to come back half an hour later to find gruesome cracks had silently spread out from the screw hole and a couple of the footswitch holes.  Mangled!

It seems the acrylic needs to be able to expand and contract, so the countersunk screws were holding very rigidly in place.  Also any chips from drilling (they make special pointy plexiglass drill bits that don't chip, or unibits are good too) are where the cracks begin, like glass.

Preventing cracks

[Processaurus]

Here's a couple projects from my gallery that use this technique, as the links have gotten lost over the years:







Looks like I countersunk the last one!  Maybe the holes were sloppy and well lined up, and I didn't honk the screws down...

[pruttelherrie]

Processaurus, it might be a good idea to anneal the plexi after drilling by putting it in a oven. Temp and time to be determined of course. This will relieve the stress in the material and in the drill edges. Als, tapping the aluminium combined with countersinking might not be a good idea, as explained in your 'preventing cracks' link. Might be best to use a washer on the inside between the oversized hole in the aluminium and the nut, to give it some slack. A drip of loctite will prevent the nut from getting loose.

Pruttel