What do you do for labeling?

[davent]

I'm using acrylic paints and for doing light onto dark i've messed with stencils cut from frisket film and lately, dilute gouache paint, hand lettering with a ruling pen. (I cut a lot of stencils.)

Gouache and ruling pen.



Stencils you can use any colours,






Stencil for blue, toner transfer for blacks.



Black waterslide on black enclosure, wtih stencils.


Pretty easy to do the large lettering light onto dark but the small lettering for controls, big challenge.
dave

[Dandro]

Im also interested in using screen printing. But i can't find a good tutorial.

[Mark Hammer]

I was always partial to the look of MXR pedals, so I use rub-on lettering.  I managed to buy a HUGE stash of it when an art supply store down the block from work decided they didn't want to carry it anymore and sold it off cheap.  I lucked into a package of white letters at an old school electronics place not far from U C Berkeley, and recently stumbled on a stash of transfer in various colours at the home of former forum member, the late Peter Snow.

Most of the time I spray clearcoat over the lettering, but sometimes I get lazy and just put a dab of clear nail polish over the letters and leave it at that.

Keeping the letters lined up can get tricky in some contexts, and I've had many occasions where I had to gently scrape away legending because it had come out on a slant.  Then there is the challenge of figuring out how to space the letters so that everything is relatively centered, AND visible, with respect to the knobs and toggles.  Finally, there is the enduring problem of the sheets of letters never having enough of this letter or that.  I have "F"s in white coming out my ears, but "E"s and "V"s are in short supply.

My older son got a membership to a local hackspace/MAKE kind of thing, and they have a laser cutter.  He made himself a fabulous-looking control/patch panel for his audio/projector system with legending, using the laser cutter, so I'm anxious to give it a whirl one day.

[WhiskeyMadeMeDoIt]

Everytime I see Dave's work I just stare in awe. Beautiful , inspiring, and frustrating how far I will have to go to one up you guys   There is so much talent on this forum it's ridiculous.   

[seedlings]

I use rub-on lettering

^ pic?  Interesting.  Time to do interwebs searches for hours!

but sometimes I get lazy

+1

Everytime I see Dave's work I just stare in awe. Beautiful , inspiring, and frustrating how far I will have to go to one up you guys  There is so much talent on this forum it's ridiculous.   

+1

CHAD

[duck_arse]

I was always partial to the look of MXR pedals, so I use rub-on lettering.
.....
Keeping the letters lined up can get tricky in some contexts, and I've had many occasions where I had to gently scrape away legending because it had come out on a slant.  Then there is the challenge of figuring out how to space the letters so that everything is relatively centered
.......
  Finally, there is the enduring problem of the sheets of letters never having enough of this letter or that.  I have "F"s in white coming out my ears, but "E"s and "V"s are in short supply.

"letraset" or "geotype". I wish they'd made some reversed ones, so they could go onto the underside of clear sheet. I always had trouble with it, letters would come off the sheet, leaving a bit behind, or they wouldn't stick to the surface, they'd crack, or they'd picked up hairs and flufff and pencil black.

and I was putting "duckpaddle" on my early pedals, not many d's left on my sheets.

[Mark Hammer]

Finally, there is the enduring problem of the sheets of letters never having enough of this letter or that.  I have "F"s in white coming out my ears, but "E"s and "V"s are in short supply.

and I was putting "duckpaddle" on my early pedals, not many d's left on my sheets.

There's always using 'p' backwards upside down, the same way you can use 'n' for 'u', or 'b' for 'q'.  Unfortunately, not only does nothing rhyme with "orange", but nothing looks like 'E' or 'e', when rotated or flipped upside down.  

If 6 was 9.....

[monksanto]

Has anyone just spray-painted their enclosures & stuck laser-printed durable "waterproof" stickers on the top (with similar-coloured background colour), and then clear-coated over the top? That's what I'm planning to do with a few fuzzes I've knocked up. I'm wondering whether this plasticky "waterproof" sticker-paper is necessary, or just normal adhesive laser-print A4 paper will do (cheaper). I imagine inkjet-print adhesive paper would be bad coz the inkjet printing on it would run & smudge with the clearcoat applied?

[monksanto]

but nothing looks like 'E' or 'e', when rotated or flipped upside down. 

what about "3"?

[WhiskeyMadeMeDoIt]

In response to the label question. Yes I have done that before and it looks ok. Be sure to spray a clear coat over it before you attach it to the box so you can see if your inks will run.  I usually use three light coats of clear and then attach it to the box and then a few light coats to fully adhere it to the box and make it look consistent.  Be aware that the clear coat can render your sticker slightly transparent.  

[Mark Hammer]

but nothing looks like 'E' or 'e', when rotated or flipped upside down. 

what about "3"?

sometimes...but it would depend on the font.  What I end up doing is using the 'F's and "borrowing" a bit of one of my many surplus Fs to fake an E.  Royal P.I.T.A.

[monksanto]

Hey Whiskey what sort of "sticker paper" do you use for those pedals, they really look nice. Also do you laser-print or inkjet-print? Do you bother to paint the top of the enclosures? etc

[duck_arse]

my ocd wouldn't cope with using an 0, a c and an upside-down p.
you'd know, mark, and I'd know, and letraset would know by sight the reversed letters on pedals, especially with the letter-styles I used where they cut the letters slightly different.

[monksanto]

One more question if you don't mind, when it comes to clear-coating, does baking the final clear-coat benefit? what is the hardest/most durable clear-coating process do you think? I have heard of this "Enviro-tex" stuff but dunno if that is available here in Australia.

[WhiskeyMadeMeDoIt]

I used Avery sticker labels. 4"x6" and used an inkjet printer.  I cut the labels out and use a fine grit sandpaper like 1200 to smooth the edges and slightly bevel the edge.  If you don't bevel it you will have a hard edge and it's easy to lift by accident.  Just take the sticker with the backing still on and sand at a 45 degree motion on the edge.  It doesn't take much.  I paint the entire box before hand in the usual manner. Drill,  Sand , primer, paint , let set a day or two.  Apply your sticker and cut the paper where your holes are using a razor blade at a slight angle. Just work around the hole until it's done. Now clear coat several light coats and let dry. I have some envirotex I am going to use as a final cover layer and see how that works. 
The envirotex is also called "bar top" finish.  You can find it at most hardware stores in the US, maybe you have some in you local place just look for a two part finish. It comes from many manufacturers.

[monksanto]

Thanks so much for the tips, Whiskey... and the rest of you's too.

[karbomusic]

One more question if you don't mind, when it comes to clear-coating, does baking the final clear-coat benefit? what is the hardest/most durable clear-coating process do you think? I have heard of this "Enviro-tex" stuff but dunno if that is available here in Australia.

In my short experience baking greatly speeds up the process but I don't think it makes it any more durable. I have also noticed that the few clear coats I've baked (acrylic and lacquer) are more susceptible to bubbling if baked too hot vs. the paint they are going on top of. I've seen most use 150-180 degrees f, but for clear I'll get 1-5 bubbles no matter what unless I crank it down to around 120-130. Maybe my oven is just off, what can you expect for 19.00 LOL.

AFAIK, the Enviro-tex type stuff will be the hardest because it is a two part epoxy, think of clear glossy JB Weld. I've also noticed regular clear coats over labels are more susceptible to pressure etc. because the underlying label still has some "give" to it vs a hard layer of paint. It seems to act as a cushion between the clear coat and paint.

Lastly, even when baking make sure you don't over coat and under cure. I did a build awhile back and got in a hurry. The waterslide decal I used didn't let the underlying paint breath and essentially acted like a lid on a paint can keeping the underlying (still wet) layer of paint wet. THREE days later I'm testing the pedal and stuck my thumb with some weight on it to get my balance while mucking with another pedal, I looked up and to my horror... I want to stress this was a baked pedal, appeared dry and was not tacky, the underlying layer was wet.



^Notice those bubbles, those are the waterslide decal, it was thicker than what I usually use and simply can't handle baking. So, I disassembled, took the top down to metal, primed and fixed with a slightly different design (I was mad a the copper flake by this time):



All better now but that really hurt and cost me a day of work. I know better now.

[acehobojoe]

That turned out nice carb! Well, I went with a different approach. Some of you may have tried this:

I just primed and painted regular, then I clearcoated the thing enough and put on a little decal for a logo and then added a regular sticker on. Sticker paper from Walmart....

And then I clearcoated the day lights out of it... I use this rustoleum automotive clear gloss, it gets hard, and yes it can bubble in the 300 degrees, so I just left it in for like 2 minutes instead and it was already dry enough to re coat.

This method gives me the white I was looking for and it looks like it's pro.. Somehow. Maybe you guys can try it. I need to try that envirotex stuff.

[vigilante397]

I've been using waterslides from the very beginning (after I realized hand-painting pedals is only a good idea if you're a decent artist  ) but I think I may make the switch to regular sticker paper. I hate having to paint the tops a different color or not paint them at all if I'm going to do artwork on a dark or non-white surface.

[karbomusic]

after I realized hand-painting pedals is only a good idea if you're a decent artist

Yea, there is that. I'm in the same boat and still do waterslides because of it. No one really wants to see my hand drawn art, it's pretty much a disaster.