[Hammarlund] Filling Engraved Panels

[jeremy-ca]

At National the Service Department had cabinets and panels stripped and 
repainted in house. We had to do the engaved refilling ourselves and used 
white lead sticks. These are similar in appearance to the lacquer sticks but 
it was easy to rub off the panel. With a bit of practice the w.l. could be 
wiped so that the engraved depth was as original and not flush with the 
surface.

I still have a 1 1/2 of those sticks but havent been able to find a current 
source. And I have a lot of panels ahead of me.

Carl
KM1H
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nickels" <W9RAN at oneradio.net>
To: "R-390A Receiver List" <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>; "Hammarlund" 
<hammarlund at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:36 PM
Subject: [Hammarlund] Filling Engraved Panels


> I'm looking for "best practices" aka "what works" when filling engraved 
> panels.  The panel in question is for a Hammarlund SP-210 but I've got a 
> 390 panel in the queue and the process should be the same.
>
> I've read everything Google has produced on the topic, which basically 
> amounts to using a) acrylic artists paint or b) lacquer stick to fill the 
> engraved lettering.   "Filling" is the easy part, the trouble comes when 
> trying to remove the residue that inevitably gets on the panel.   Most 
> folks say to wait "a while" for the fill to dry, then remove the residue 
> with a damp cloth, or something similar.  It sounds good, but I've had 
> less than zero success at removing the excess paint while leaving the 
> filled area intact.
>
> The laws of physics seem to get in the way.  Common sense tells us that a 
> thin layer of paint will dry before a thick one, and my attempts thus far 
> confirm that if I wait long enough for the filled area to be sufficiently 
> dry, the residue on the panel has fully dried and is nearly impossible to 
> remove without marring the panel.   Edison-like, I've tried dozens of 
> different methods on my (now) test panel, including adding cornstarch to 
> thicken the paint, using various materials as a squeegee, and different 
> cure times, but the result is inevitably a whitish haze around the 
> letters, inconsitent filling of some letters, and a generally lousy 
> (polite word) appearance.
>
> There must be a trick to this, and while I'm busy stripping and re-priming 
> and painting, I'm hoping some of you who have had success will share your 
> secrets.  In as much detail as possible, please!  Edison was a patient 
> man....I'm not ;-)
>
> Thanks and 73,
> Bob W9RAN
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