Ok, so I have been busy working away on synthy stuff this last week, and one of the things I have done is to actually test out my panel manufacturing methods. I was pretty sure that it was going to work eventually, but I hadn’t actually tried my planned methodology out for real.
I realised this when I sat down to start making the front panel last weekend and figured I should probably do something else first. As I had been planning to make one anyway I figured that a fancy front panel for my deathly boring ‘Manual Voltage Processor’ might be in order.
I have documented how I got from panel blank to finished panel below.
First, I designed the panel in Illustrator before exporting it to a format that my CNC software could understand. Later I would realise that importing like this caused a slight layout error on my rail holes as they went out of position relative to the rest of the board caused by using a ‘Responsive SVG’, its not a problem here but its a lesson I will take to heart.
Anyway, it milled ok, some minor issues cutting through the back side of aluminium on my Alupanel board, but since it was already cut to size it just meant that I needed to drill out the last .4mm of the holes.
Making a wasteboard and module holder
Blank panel mounted
Milling the panel
Finsihed trimmed panel
So now I had an engraved and cut panel I gave it a good priming (just to make sure my paint would properly adhere to the gloss surface) and gave it a coat of paint to form the background. This was acrylic artists spray paint, which is a bugger to use unless you have practice, but you could use any kind of paint to achieve a background colour/pattern/whatever you like.
After painting
After clearcoat
As you can see in the second photo, once I had got the artwork on the panel, I then gave it a good coat of gloss varnish. This was important for the next stage. I then used a Titanium White artists oil paint and thinners to paint in the engraving, and because I had clearcoated it I could then use a rag and more thinners to carefully clean off the overspill. Its a bit laborious but I think it came out quite nicely in the end.
Final panel with lettering, minor touch-ups to be completed in a few days
Now for anyone eagle eyed, yes the Attenuverters label at the top is a little close to the row of sockets beneath, but they do just fit, and yes I still need to do another pass of cleaning with thinners to get the last of the white paint smears off the panel here and there, but waiting for oil paint to dry takes days, and its a very minor touch up so I figured I would write it up now. I’ll also give it another blast of clearcoat before I assemble it so it has a nice uniform finish (the thinners dulls it).