P

pa24

Member
I am at the stage of cutting the panel and mounting the various instruments. Looking for some ideas of labeling the switches, lights, etc. and also what is a good paint to use on the panel. Thanks
 
For my panel, I used rattle-can paint, "cured" in the oven - nice and hard, and still looks great! For labels, I used a Borther labeller, black text on clear backing. The labels stick great, and if you rub them on well, the substrate is almost invisible, except under the right glare conditions. I considered silk-screening for the panel labels, but couldn't personally justify the expense - and I also found that I was changing labels right up to (and after!) the flight test phase. It was easy to make changes with the labels - would have been a lot tougher if I'd screened the panels. Maybe that's just because I was being indecisive!

Paul
 
You may want to try making your own decals. You can print them off with an inkjet or laser printer. You can purchase plain decal paper here:

http://www.decalpaper.com/

I just noticed that they have a new 'rub-on' decal paper. No water needed.

You just create a sheet using your favorite word processor. You then
print out your labels on plain paper and 'tape' them to the panel to see how they look. Once you are happy with how they look, you can commit them to the Decal paper. The only problem is that Inkjet and Laser printers cannot print 'white' . However, dye-sub printers can. They have come way down in price and you can buy one for under $200, in some cases under $100.
 
I'm currently experimenting with this system: DecalPRO

It takes a bit of practice to make it work right. On the plus side, you can do white labels (any other colors), you can make a label out of anything you can print, and it's removable. The only unknown is durability, but the labels seem pretty tough.

Dave
 
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