How do you silk screen your panels!

[RobiD]

I built a small cnc machine to make my own panels and korries.

I use 3mm white acrylic to start, sand well, then paint with 4 or 5 coats of the colour of choice (mines black).

For switch, led, rotary mounting, I have a 5mm mounting plate at the back. I then design the panel including text and lines in Coreldraw for the front and back pieces in one go, then separate them into front and back (this is so the cuts are exactly the same on front and back pieces, then export into plt format, import into RAMSGold to generate the gcode.

I then start with engraving the text and lines using a finely ground (to a point) 1mm drill bit in order to just cut through the paint and reveal the white acrylic underneath (this is a great method as you can now also backlight the panels).

Once the engraving is done, I then cut out the display/switch/rotary holes and finally cut out the outside of the panel.

Then I mount the 5mm clear acrylic, cut all the inside holes first then make the outside cut. They should then fit together perfectly.

Providing you have made the cnc machine reasonably acurate (in other words, a circle is a circle and not and oval), the text should look good.

I have my whole cockpit done this way and when I'm locked inside it (figurativly speaking) and it's dark other than the panels all lit up.... all I can say is... it was worth the time spent building the cnc machine.

The Korries I cut out of 6mm perspex as 9 pieces and then glue them all together.

The labels: I use 1mm clear acrylic sheet, paint it black on one side (3 or 4 coats) then design the labels in coreldraw (an important point here is to use a single line font) and before exporting, reverse the text so it is backward. Export to plt, import to RamsGold, produce the g-code and do the engraving.

What you get is labels with the shiny clear side facing you with the black on the back and the engraving on the back. Looks very professional.

Hope my little bit helps too.

David

[sbecker777]

I do a similar thing for my 777 Korry buttons. I have a pdf guide showing how I did it. My website is: http://home.roadrunner.com/~mbecker/...tch_notes.html

Steve

[kukmasta]

Hi Steve, can you tell me about your DIY CNC machine.
Regards,
Chris