DIY amp lettering?

[LeftySixSoul]

Hi all,
I just recovered and modded the amp below "Batman" style for my son's upcoming birthday. I've completed most of the work, but I am stuck on how to put on lettering for the controls on the faceplate of the amp. Any ideas?

[J M Fahey]

Cool !!!
For a 1-off I suggest you draw the front panel in Corel Draw or something similar , add fancy graphics if you wish (including Batman type "POW" and "ZAP" labels if you wish ) and have some downtown Graphics Shop plot it for you, on self-adhesive vinyl, the kind they use to cover Vans and Trucks.
Or make an accurate sketch with exact dimensions and let them draw it for you.
Tell them it must be moisture proof , so either ask for "outside rated" Vinyl, or have it laminated or varnished.
Then you apply it "carefully" to your empty front panel , cut all holes with an atrist's cutter (or let the Shop guys do it) and remount pots and jacks.
Do not overtighten nuts to avoid "pulling" vinyl.
This is an example in one of my amps:

You can clearly see the vinyl sheet glued to a naked aluminum chassis.
Same in this attenuator, where I just used a self adhesive illustration paper sheet, printed in my desktop Laser.
I then applied 3 or 4 light coats of transparent Krylon, artist's spray varnish.
*Light* coats, or its solvents will unglue the adhesive sheet, or at least cause bubbles.
But just let the Printing/GraphicArt shop do the job.


I usually silkscreen panels, but for 1-offs it does not pay the effort.

EDIT: be sure to specify some "sharp" definition setting, such as 720 DPI or better; Car type printing is usually at lower resolution (such as 360 DPI) to speed the job, and is watched from a few feet away, not your case, you want sharp readable text.

[LeftySixSoul]

Cool !!!
For a 1-off I suggest you draw the front panel in Corel Draw or something similar , add fancy graphics if you wish (including Batman type "POW" and "ZAP" labels if you wish )

My thoughts exactly!! "Boom" for bass, "Zap" for treble, "Kapow" for volume, etc.

Thanks for the tips. I think that should work great! I will post pics when it's done.

[Gingertube]

For 1 offs like this I use a Brother "P-Touch" label machine. White on Clear Tape works beautifully on a black chassis and would likely work well on your blue panel. You can order tapes with a range of background colours and text colours.

"Here is one I prepared earlier"

Cheers,
Ian

[J M Fahey]

Cool tip. Thanks.

[soundguruman]

I used to make face plates with rub off transfer lettering.
Buy Dry Transfer Letters, Vinyl Letters, Chartpak Tapes & Computer Supplies
Takes forever. Then spray polyurethane over the top of the letters. Several coats...
There are also rub off transfers that have the numbers - 0-10 for control knobs...
Actually works really well, and you can do all sorts of cool stuff that a label maker would never do. Decals and custom graphics...
Believe it. Before computers, this is how we did everything for control panels. "somehow" we managed.
But the coolest of all was etched, engraved, and enameled.

See? this is the benchmark for what "cool" is.
Notice also, that the controls go to 20? See how the tone controls are book-matched? Now, 'that's' craftsmanship...with all of our modern resources, we can no longer build an amp that goes to 20. A lost art. What happened to real technology?

[J M Fahey]

For ages I also used white Letraset on black panels, either acrylic sheet or painted metal.
Then I learnt silk screening and that changed everything for good.

[SteveJones]

I make my front panels by doing design in Corel Draw, then having a trophy shop "print" the image to a plastic sheet using Laser Dye sublimation process (or something like that). this is the same process they use for making plaques and such from letters and other documents. the process actually etches the design into the plastic, which has a lower layer of black plastic. This way you can do lettering, graphics, your logo, etc.

[dmartn149]

Here's a method that I just stumbled upon. I had some white waterslide material that I had bought accidentally, so I thought I would use it to label the bright channel. Then I realized that I could outline it in black with a layer of clear waterslide. If I had planed the outline from the start, I would have printed it on both layers and used it as a trim guide on the white layer.