Anybody used letraset on their panels?
I did it like this . first the mock up [ which you could use the letraset ]
then scan the original
takes a bit of trial and error to get the scale right so white copy paper for the test before printing to color paper .
than seal with a hot lamination machine using matte finish plastic sheets . surprisingly in expensive for what you get .
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They look great! Are the whole panels plastic?
they are paper with a plastic laminate , pretty tough and easy to make .
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Wouldn’t it be easier to just work on inskape, gimp, etc, print them on a laser printer, and then laminate them? Also, how do you glue them on the panels? Looks very neat!
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Yes! Tell us all!!
Tutorial!
Again. 
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I’ve done that, or close to that:
Rather than a laminating machine, I’ve used self adhesive transparent vinyl.
For fixing to the panel I’ve tried spray adhesive, but I’ve also tried just cutting the vinyl wide and wrapping it around the panel edges and that works okay.
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I’ve had pretty good results using a circut joy and some adhesive vinyl.
It becomes more and more of a faf the smaller your print is.
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sorry been out of town for a week .
yeah it would be nice if I new how to use inkskape etc.
most of the modules I did this way Ray Wilson [ music from outer space ] had the art work done it was just a matter of scaling to kosmo size [ 20 cm tall ] .
the canned spray glue to stick them to the aluminum blanks .
ok , I haven’t done a panel like this in a while but I do have a project coming up that will need custom panels so maybe do a simple tutorial .
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Here’s my latest set of panels. I buy 1m lengths of 2mm aluminium cut 128.5mm wide (I’m building Eurorack) from my local metals warehouse, saw off the length I need for each panel and file the cut ends straight and to length
Panel layouts designed in Inkscape
Holes drilled according to Inkscape centre positions and deburred with a 0-flute countersink
Rubbed down with 1200 grit wet&dry paper (used dry) and cleaned with acetone
Sprayed with a thin coat of etch primer, then normal primer, finally with gloss top coat
Legends are printed on ink-jet transfer paper, given a thin coat of satin laqcuer & applied once dry
Whole panel given a finishing coat of satin lacquer.
A gloss top coat makes it easier to move the waterslide transfers into position; they stick faster on matt paint. You can make out the edges of the transfers in certain lights but generally they’re not visible. The silver paint I used on the Turing Machine panels is a bit of a pain as it changes appearance slightly after lacquering and the transfers are more visible, but overall I’m very pleased with the results.
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These look so good, are you doing the labels in all sections or the whole panel at once?
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Thank you! I’m pleased with how they’ve turned out.
In the main I try to minimise the amount of empty transfer film on the panels, so many of the transfers are applied individually. Sometimes for a row of sockets I apply all the legends on a single transfer to be sure they’re nicely aligned, similarly for many of the legends around switches. It would be difficult to apply a whole-panel transfer (and it would be relatively fragile), also getting all the holes in exactly the right place would be challenging, especially with my rather poor quality bench drill.
Etch primer and thoroughly cleaning the aluminium surface are very important too. For my earlier panels I just used ordinary spray primer as the base layer, and it’s rather easy to flake the paint when tightening the panel screws. The base coat of etch primer makes the finish significantly tougher.
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Is there any chance that someone has an .svg template that includes the dimensions of common components (potentiometers, jacks, etc) who wishes to share it?
A version of what I use. There are layers for the panel hardware, holes, and behind the panel. The holes aren’t quite the same dimensions I’m using currently but they’re close enough for layout.
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This is awesome, thanks!
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