Labeling panel and switches
 

Does anyone have a good way to label the switches on the panel and side switch rest?

There have been quite a few good posts in the forums on this in the past, so I bet if you search on "Labels", you'll get a lot of good ideas.

I went with a Brother labeler (black on clear, or white on clear tape) because I had the feeling that the labels might change as the work and testing went on - and I was right. Certainly is not as fancy as engraving the panels, or silk-screening, but unless you look really close, you can't see th tape, and if I do need to change something, it is quick and easy.

Paul

Bill, Paul is right....those switches have a tendency to change. I used a P-touch and black on clear tape (pic below).

http://www.vansairforce.net/N617ARVi.../ADI_panel.jpg

Stick On
 

If you do them in Adobe Illustrator and place a black box around the label you can ask the printer to make the cutout line of the clear tape co-incident with the black box and the clear tape is then not apparent.
Pete.

Ooh, I like the idea from down under! My P-touch will make those little boxes as well and I guess I could just do the cutting with the scissors. By the way, am I the only one who thinks the name "p-touch" is a little weird? Sounds like some type of codeword you'd use at the massage parlor. :cool:

Extra strength tape
 

Be sure to order the extra strength tape for your Brothers label maker. I ended up replacing all my labels after a very hot day in the garage. :mad:

Pat Garboden
Ozark, MO
RV9-A 942WG (reserved)
RV9-A 942PT (reserved)

I'm a long ways from doing my panel, but I have done a fair amount of experimentation on this subject. I tried several methods of printing using an inkjet printer, including clear labels, normal paper, and photo paper. The clear labels were more translucent than transparent. The photo paper allowed colored labels that looked like an engraved plastic name tag. I had a few tests that produced nearly acceptable results, but I could see the edges of the labels, so I looked at other options.

I thought doing my own silkscreen would be nice, and I experimented with the PhotoEZ stuff at:

http://www.ezscreenprint.com/

This works, but I have still not gotten consistent perfect results. Pretty good, but not perfect.

Then, I got a link off of a thread in this forum to Mark and Dave's RV at:

http://www.4sierratango.com/panel3.htm

They seemed to be pretty happy with the DecalPro stuff at:

http://www.pulsar.gs/index.html

I bought their PCB package and got great results doing Printed circuit boards. Then I bought their normal Decal transfer stuff, and done a bit of experimentation. I am still working on the process, since I almost always loose a part of a character or two in the transfer, but I am pretty sure that I will go with this.

BTW, with all of my experiments, I have spent way more money than if I had just let a professional do this for me, but then I like the experimentation part.

Tracy.

Dymo
 

Anyone know how the Dymo label material holds up? I was thinking of using the clear tape with black lettering, then clearing over it.

I feel the cheapest, easiest way to 'professional' looking labels is to make your own using print-your-own decal sheets.

http://beldecal.stores.yahoo.net/moddecpap.html

You can use pretty much any word processor to create them. You can test print as many times as you need on plain paper before commiting to the actual decal sheets. I know one guy who color printed his labels on plain paper then took that sheet and a decal sheet to Staples and had the plain paper copied onto the decal sheet with a color laser for less than 1$.

Greg,

Thanks, I'll have to give that a try. These experiments are starting to get expensive.

Tracy.