[sdiy] Front Panel blues

[David G Dixon]

> I've been using photo paper for making diy front panels. It 
> works great but has a few drawbacks. A friend told me about 
> Lazertran. He uses the bake-on method where the printing is 
> on the underside where its protected. I tried it twice with 
> dismal results. I've tried printing on transparency materiel 
> and using double-sided tape but the tape shows too much. Does 
> anyone have another method of printing on clear material and 
> attaching it onto aluminum panels?

Lazertran works very well, but you've really got to do it exactly right.
The most important thing is that you've got to preheat the laserjet printing
with a heat gun; otherwise, it generates small bubbles during baking which
cause the graphics to lift off the aluminum.  Squeegeeing thoroughly to
remove air bubbles is also very important.  I put it in the oven briefly
(about 5 minutes) at 200F, just to get it warm and a little soft, and then
take it out and rub all the graphics gently but vigourously with a folded
paper towel to remove the air bubbles.  If they are really big, I may even
poke a tiny hole in the film with a needle to help the bubble escape.  With
that process, I can generally get nice smooth graphics.  Then, I heat it up
very slowly to about 375, where I leave it for about half an hour.  Then,
just let it cool in the oven.  I also put it in a baking pan near the bottom
of the oven, and cover it with a baking sheet so that it doesn't "see" the
heating element.  Radiant heat will heat it up too fast.

Yeah, Lazertran's a bitch, but when it works well, nothing DIY beats it.