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Subject: Re: saving money with tickmark discs

From: "~Morbius~" <morbius@...>
Date: 2007-09-29

Well... my guess is that the type of paint used is what forms the texture. You may be thinking "well yeah... duh?!". In the engraving world (by and large), 'textures' are made, or formed into the engraving material blanks themselves. These aren't usually thick pieces of metal (like module blanks), but usually plastic... and certainly not what one would use AS a module. Again, it goes back to numbers... if you know you are going to do X-100 or X-1000, then it becomes much more economically feasible....  to do metal blanks, and silkscreen them. It seems to me that there is a place near me, which my tech told me that this company does exactly that... make just about anything out of any kind of sheet-metal... be it aluminum, or whatever. The can make control-boxes (the housings), or module faces... the do the cutting, bending, painting, punching, printing... everything (so he said). I think the name of the place is "Ten-Tech" or "Tenn Tec"... something like that... and they're in Sevierville, Tn., on Dolly Parton Pkwy. I've passed by the place, but have never gone in. As I understand it... you could take them a sample or example of what you want done, and they can take it from there.
 
As for engraving on textured metal... I dunno. That seems to be an element from two different worlds... in that, by using textured paint on aluminum, I think the only option may just be to silkscreen the graphics. Engraving metal is done, but it's usually a very thin gauge... and basically, it's scratched into the surface. Think of trophies and plaques. When you see something engraved with two or more colors, it's either multi-colored engraving materieal (which is plastic), or something like plexi or lexan, and engraved, and sometimes paint-filled, or spray painted. The quick and simple method... spray-paint the back side one color... let it dry... then engrave the lettering, and paint-fill or spray the letter/grahic 2nd color into the engraved part... and this is all on the back-side of the material. But- that's only good of plastics/plexi/lexan... not metal.
 
There are some metal blanks, made for laser-engraving, which are one color on the front surface, and the laser-engraving burns away that top surface color, revealing a second color beneath.... usually gold or brass-looking color. There may be some new materials on the market now. I've been out of it for 5-6 years.
 
Hope this was of some help... or at least, of interest.
 
~Morbius~
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Deyo
To: ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [ModularSynthPanels] Re: saving money with tickmark discs

Hi Morbius,

If that's your $.02, I'll throw in a dollar to hear more! It's really good to know the biz side of things, and how other places do it.

How hard is it to have a nice textured paint finish (like DotCom, for instance ;) on an engraved panel? That's my biggest beef w/ FPE -- they just look so flat, and scratch easily.

Scott Deyo
The Bridechamber
contact@...
www.bridechamber.com


On Sep 28, 2007, at 4:44 PM, ~Morbius~ wrote:

Just as an info kinda thing....  Having been an engraver and working in the sign biz for since the 80's, I can tell you that reverse-engraving (or front engraving) and paint-filling (or spraying) is going to be more expensive since it is so much more labor-intensive. I had, at one time, considered reverse-engraving either plexi, or lexan... and illuminating it either from the side(s) or the back. The rear is painted black, and the graphics are painted whatever color you want (or use colored a light-source and leave the engraved clear)... That makes all of the text, graphics, and tickmarks light-up (and looks very impressive). When I was in Nashville, I worked at a sign company which did all of the engraving work and awards for the Country Music Awards.... Opryland... all of the big hotels.... and our engraving department was the largest department in the whole place, with 5 fulltime engravers working 5 days a week, 9 hours a day. We built a lot of stuff from scratch in plexi and lexan, and had every type of equipment needed... from plainers to routing tables... from acetylene torches to 'weld-on' (plexi glue) and paint-booths. Like most things, you get what you pay for... and if you go with 'cheap', it's gonna look 'cheap'.
 
A much cheaper way would be to have the 'dial' (with the tickmark calibration) printed onto adhesive vinyl. But here again, quantities are really needed to make it cost effective. Where it can be printed more cheaply on a Fargo or any large-format printer... cutting-out the 'stickers' becomes the issue. There are a few large-format printers which are also plotter/cutters... and they can do the entire operation from the file. But- it's still a matter of 'do you want 'stickers... or silkscreened, or engraved'? The 'look' one wants, is gonna have everthing to do with the cost... just like the quantity is going to affect the price... (or price per unit).
 
Laser-engraving is the way to go with many materials. And usually, besides the laser doing the engraving, it also cuts-out each unit from the material blanks.
Making the tickmarks is no big deal... that is, with the proper software. I know that CasMate and Flexi Sign are both used for engraving, vinyl-cutting, and large-format printing... and both do vector-graphics, and generate all sorts of dials, rulers, calibration and tickmarks...  and all you do is select the option you want in the drop-drown menu, then, assign the variables... size of the dial, thickness of the strokes, depth, how many, numbers or characters and where you want them... etc. But like silkscreening... it's the first layout that takes a little time designing. After that, you're just pulling-up a file and reproducing it, or editing it.
 
Just my $02/100
I'll shut-up now.   : |
 
~Morbius~
----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Deyo
To: ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: [ModularSynthPanels] saving money with tickmark discs

That's cool. I didn't know about that. I just saw Dave's CVS module -- crazy! I love it!

I can't legally use fpd files, though I think I can view them and go from there. But they did make the software, and it's very handy indeed. It's a morally gray area :)

Scott Deyo
The Bridechamber
contact@...
www.bridechamber.com


On Sep 28, 2007, at 3:50 PM, xamboldt wrote:

If you use HPGL to make the tick marks, it saves some money. I
believe you can find some example fpd files on Dave Brown's site.

-Chris

On Sep 28, 2007, at 4:21 PM, David Griffith wrote:

>
> It seems to me that making tickmarks around pots is one of those
> things
> that really add to the cost of panels. Suppose you make up a bunch of
> thin discs with tickmarks on them and use those instead of putting
> tickmarks directly on the panels. Would this be cheaper? Would it look
> or feel ugly?
>
> --
> David Griffith
> dgriffi@...
>
>