[sdiy] silkscreening and other finishings

[Scott Gravenhorst]

My father was into DIY electronics when I was a kid.
I remember him using an engraver on aluminum and steel.
He basically just 'wrote', it wasn't elegant, but it was
readable.  I also remember watching him build an analog
electronic (it had a silicon diode and a transistor I 
think) tachometer for automobile engines.  He used a 
d'arsenval meter, and made a new scale from paper, 
disassembled the meter and placed the paper under 
the needle.  Then he 'calibrated' it by borrowing a 
neighbor's tach and  penciled in the RPM 100s marks.  
It was nonlinear, but again, quite readable and 
accurate enough to set the carb's idle jets.

And yes, Dymo.  I remember seeing projects in Popular
Electronics that had controls and jacks labeled with
Dymo.  It looked better if the project box paint color
matched the Dymo, like black on black, but it still
looked like crap no matter what.

But, I was never and am not now an asthetics nut.  If
the box works and is reliable, I was always happy.

Personally, I've used dry transfers on (extremely clean)
aluminum with adequate results.  Looks better than
Dymo, but certainly is not as resiliant and durable as 
silk screening.  I've been able to find (occasionally)
special dry transfers that have common electronics words
available.  Not lately though.  Dry transfers present
a letter alignment and kerning challenge.

But some of my stuff is totally unlabeled.  My fatman
mods panels are like that.  My friends think it's cool
that I can tweak that thing with no labels.  One day,
I need to fix that, since Alzheimer's or some other 
senile dementia will eventually take over...  It will
probably be something on the order of a 'sharpie'...

Hey, the stuff works.

tpaddock at seanet.com wrote:
>Harry,
>But when dymo labels fell off you could still 
>read the letters in the fossilized goo. :)
>I was kind of wondering what was pre-dymo?
>Maybe I'm thinking 40s-50s instead of 50s-60s.
>Punch letters on copper strips and "age" in 
>salt water? H2O2? Cola?
>
>I bet dymo dates back farther than I think. 
>Maybe I'll hit it with a heat gun to fade 
>it out a bit. (If I can find some) Nothing 
>says high-class like woodgrain dymo.
>
>Thanks,
>Toby Paddock
>PS- I just checked ebay and sure 
>enough, there's lots of *vintage* Dymo.
>
>Harry wrote:
>> If you want an authentic 60's look use labelmaker
>> plastic tape once made by Dymo. Don't know if it
>> still exists. It embossed litters into a thick
>> plastic self adhesive tape.  It looked awful but
>> I saw a LOT of homebuilt projects using it...
>> 
>> Used it myself... eventually the adhesive dries
>> out and the labels fall off... leaving a sticky
>> residue behind.
>> 
>> H^) harry
>> 
>
>

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-- Scott Gravenhorst | LegoManiac / Lego Trains / RIS 1.5
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