[sdiy] My Panel Progress

[Tom Arnold]

Since the subject has come up, I figured I'd show some pictures of the
panels and module work I've gotten slowly done over the last few weeks.

I'm a FracRak guy so to start I bought 5.25x3x0.063"  6061-T6 panels from the 
Metal Supermarket. 30 panels came to about $30 cut to size and all. I also
picked up a 3" wide strip and a 4" wide strip of 5052 0.050" for making PCB
brackets.  I was going to go with Stainless but I want to make sure besides
the rough cutting that I can work all the raw materials I buy.

To label the panels I'm using ID-MARK.  This is photo sensitive aluminum.  I
use Front Designer to lay out the panels, print reversed on transparency (
so you can put the printing in direct contact with the material so you dont
get edge-shadow ), then expose for 8 minutes under blacklight.  Rinse/wipe
with water and done.  Punch the front panel blank, stick on the sheet ( 3m
adhesive backing, REAL hard to peel off... ).  I dimple the mounting holes
on the sheet for alignment.  if I have an LED poking thru like on the
darkstars I use a 5mm punch to push out the hole so its clean, otherwise I
cut with an xacto knife.  Colour the edge with a black sharpie and then
shoot it with a matte clearcoat.  I did 6 panels in an afternoon.  It really
takes longer to do the graphic layout then it does to make the physical
panel.

Anyhow, pictures :
Two Darkstars.  The one on the right is the original Blacet Panel, the one
on the left is my panel.  Thats a totally new panel layout except I did scan
the CHAOS logo because I couldnt find the font.  Oh, the Blacet Font seems
to be Cooper Black if anyone was wondering.  That module on the far right is 
the IBM joystick to CV interface that I've been toying with.
http://www.depressed.net/gallery/Modules/DarkstarsInRack

Here are 6 panels.  I ran out of 1/8" jacks, another 100 Kobiconn's on the
way ( yes, I saw the light finally... ).  That Darkstar panel has
Switchcrafts in it since thats what I used on the other two Darkstars.
Although my photo skills are horrible, I'm really quite proud of the
graphics and layout of the Ray Wilson VCO panels in the upper right.
The panel graphics are in no way fuzzy.  As small as that Square/Pulse
graphic is, you can ( in real life ) see that part of the wave is a dashed
line, just like a mini version of Ray Wilson's sample panel graphic.
I settled on the MOTM font for my panels because its a nice clean font
even when reduced to small sizes.
http://www.depressed.net/gallery/Modules/PanelBlanks_FirstRun

Here's my Dual Steiner module.  I forgot to order 1k pots so its not wired
yet but its REAL REAL close to being done.
http://www.depressed.net/gallery/Modules/DualSteiner

I made the PCB bracket using a little 8" Brake/Sheer I got from Grizzley for
cheap.  Works great if you stay within its admittedly limited specs.  I
decided I didnt want extra screws on the front panel, I mount the bracket
under the pots.
http://www.depressed.net/gallery/Modules/MiniSheerBrake

Here's my Punch with some shiney new tooling in it.
http://www.depressed.net/gallery/Modules/Punch

Here's my blacklight exposure "station" propped up in the far corner of my
office.  The red dot you see is the 12 LED safelight I made and stuck to the
back of the blacklight fixture.
http://www.depressed.net/gallery/Modules/Blacklight

The ID-MARK stuff is extremely easy to use.  I did buy a paper cutter to
trim it, makes me a lot less wastefull.  Its fairly narrow band sensative
and it just lucks out that hippie/raver blacklights ( which I happen to have
a zillion of ) are perfect for exposing it.  I did a test run and worked out
the exposure time of 8 minutes.  I use a very dim but not totally dark room
to expose it so I can see to work.  No direct non-safe lighting.  I cut down
the large sheets only under the safelight so I can try and remove as many
fingers as possible by accident.  
Price isnt bad.  5 12"x20" ID-MARK sheets ran $130 and when done I should
have gotten around 50 panels out of this pack including waste from learning.  

So, what have I spent...  Well, lets not get into that.  When I'm done with
my first 40 panels based on my FrontPanelExpress estimated pricing, I'll
have broken even pricewise.  Whats more important to me is I can go from a
bare board to a finished custom module in a night if I dont sleep.  Most of
the cost I've spent are in tools that I could have done without but that
make my life a lot easier ( the punch and the sheer ).  

Hopefully soon I'll have fewer loose parts and more modular!

-- 
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 - Tom Arnold       -  Free Synth DIY webspace http://www.sdiy.org 
 - SynthGeek        -
 - BBD Fanatic      -  "...is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" 
 - echo evho wjxo   -    Juanita Shrugs. "What's the difference?" 
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