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Placards

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Sun Sep 24, 2017 6:37 pm

Placards

OK guys... Tell me what you think... I wrote a 3D model today and am going to 3d print placards for my new instrument panel. I'll print the placards in black and then dip the faces of the letters in white. It was hard to convert the program to a jpeg, so the quality is a little grainy. Give me your opinions, good and bad...

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Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:13 pm

Re: Placards

Something wrong with a tape label maker? :lol:

MTV
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Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:16 pm

Re: Placards

mtv wrote:Something wrong with a tape label maker? :lol:

MTV


Ummm, yeah... Its a tape label maker! Good lord!
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Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:20 pm

Re: Placards

Dang perfectionists....making the rest of us look bad..... :lol:

MTV
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 6:31 am

Re: Placards

mtv wrote:Dang perfectionists....making the rest of us look bad..... :lol:

MTV


;)
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 6:36 am

Re: Placards

They'd be even cooler in braille, not unlike the keypads at the drive-through ATM at the bank.

Interested to see how they turn out :)
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 6:49 am

Re: Placards

I could see this turning out somewhere between "throw them away and don't tell anyone you ever had this idea" and "will you sell me a set for my plane" based on the printer you're using and associated output quality. I work with a $400 machine and a $25,000 machine at work and you get what you pay for if you want something that looks good. Nothing beats the $400 machine for early cheap fast prototyping, though! Keep us updated.

-Asa
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 7:32 am

Re: Placards

asa wrote:I could see this turning out somewhere between "throw them away and don't tell anyone you ever had this idea" and "will you sell me a set for my plane" based on the printer you're using and associated output quality. I work with a $400 machine and a $25,000 machine at work and you get what you pay for if you want something that looks good. Nothing beats the $400 machine for early cheap fast prototyping, though! Keep us updated.

-Asa


Yeah, true. There are ways to machine finish 3D printed objects if they aren't smooth enough, though some careful sanding might work too. Worst case, decide the idea has merit but 3D printing isn't quite up to the requirement, and have a finished product CNC machined at a shop once the design is set. That opens up some other possibilities for materials as well.
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:27 am

Re: Placards

If we are on the subject of fancy placards, then some fancy chrome metal laser-etched ones would look cool. :mrgreen:
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:36 am

Re: Placards

ShadowAviator wrote:If we are on the subject of fancy placards, then some fancy chrome metal laser-etched ones would look cool. :mrgreen:


Well I mean if we're going there, why not EL backlighting? :shock:
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:39 am

Re: Placards

ShadowAviator wrote:If we are on the subject of fancy placards, then some fancy chrome metal laser-etched ones would look cool. :mrgreen:


I tried doing some etching and it didn't turn out like I wanted it. The panel is going to be carbon, so I'm going to try this. My printer on the fine setting does really well, so I am not as much worried about the finish.

We'll see, I had to order the material and it arrives on Thursday. I'll post a pic, but like he said above, it's either gonna look good or be laughable.

Jim
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:44 am

Re: Placards

jaudette wrote: My printer on the fine setting does really well, so I am not as much worried about the finish.

We'll see, I had to order the material and it arrives on Thursday. I'll post a pic, but like he said above, it's either gonna look good or be laughable.

Jim


What printer are you using?
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:46 am

Re: Placards

jaudette wrote:
mtv wrote:Something wrong with a tape label maker? :lol:

MTV


Ummm, yeah... Its a tape label maker! Good lord!



What about masking tape and a sharpie???
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:50 am

Re: Placards

TangoFox wrote:
jaudette wrote:
mtv wrote:Something wrong with a tape label maker? :lol:

MTV


Ummm, yeah... Its a tape label maker! Good lord!



What about masking tape and a sharpie???


That was version 1.0. Now moving to 2.0...
jaudette offline
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:52 am

Re: Placards

asa wrote:
jaudette wrote: My printer on the fine setting does really well, so I am not as much worried about the finish.

We'll see, I had to order the material and it arrives on Thursday. I'll post a pic, but like he said above, it's either gonna look good or be laughable.

Jim


What printer are you using?


I've got one of the Da Vinci's from XYZ. For doing the small pieces without a lot of curves, it does really well.

Jim
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:51 am

Re: Placards

mtv wrote: Something wrong with a tape label maker? :lol:


I've never minded the look of the old raised-letter tape labels,
they had a cool kind of military look to them.
PITA to punch them out on the old Dymo label-maker though.

Image

But there's a new generation of electronic label-makers out there now.
You can choose different width tapes, with various color backgrounds & characters.
I did all the little placards on my panel with one of these, they look pretty good.
You can even create, line by line, the rather extensive placards spelled out in Cessna's TCDS's.
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Mon Sep 25, 2017 11:06 am

Re: Placards

Sorry Jim, they'll never look as good as the placards I saw on a 180 at Marble some years ago. The pilot is a mechanic from Alamosa, he's deaf (his girl friend uses the radio and signs to him), and the 180 is his "baby". His custom aluminum panel has all of the placards embossed on it, and they're as close to perfect as I can imagine--truly beautiful workmanship. I asked him how long it took to make his panel, and his answer was "you really don't want to know".

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Mon Sep 25, 2017 6:50 pm

Re: Placards

DIY silk screening turns out quite nice.
This was a quick test. Turned out decent but I'll be re-working it for the final job.


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Tue Sep 26, 2017 7:45 am

Re: Placards

Bagarre wrote:DIY silk screening turns out quite nice.
This was a quick test. Turned out decent but I'll be re-working it for the final job.


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How do you do that?
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Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:18 pm

Re: Placards

https://ezscreenprint.com/products/diy-basic-screen-printing-starter-kit

That's what i started with and just bought more supplies as I needed them.
I organize the lettering in MSWord (printed a billion times on white paper) until I got what I wanted.
I should organize an post some photos of the process but it's WAY easier than it looks.

This is the youtube video that convinced me I could do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWqrQxrVb7k&t=1s
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