[R-390] How to finish a front panel (more)

Mon, 1 Jul 2002 08:02:06 -0500

Hmmm, I have a panel that has a rather noticeable scrape on the lower-left edge.  It's just enough to where I don't want to just paint over it.  I had considered rounding/beveling the entire panel, but pretty much decided against it.  I have plans to take it to a shop and have a small bead of heliarc done to the edge and then filing it back down square.  I don't JBWeld would hold here as it is on an outside edge and might not hold very well.

Your panel sure looks nice, though.  It makes rounding/beveling a bit more attractive to me.  I agree that the sheared edges aren't very nice and a bit of smoothing with a file is in order, but one thing to consider is the panels are already a bit undersize (slightly less than 19 X 10.5).  I'm skiddish about doing anything to make it smaller.  It should be a bit undersize to fit properly in a rack/cabinet, but I would be afraid to keep making it smaller.  Just a thought.

Barry(III) - N4BUQ
(...wishing I had a compresser/paint gun instead of relying on paint cans...sigh...)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: scott [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 6:41 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [R-390] How to finish a front panel (more)
> 
> 
> What I did not mention in this first post is how I dressed 
> the panel edges.
> This may be getting a bit carried away for some but it sure 
> makes them look
> better!!
> The panels were sheared from aluminum plate in the factory 
> and the edges
> were never dressed.  The shearing leaves the edges rough from 
> the blade
> cutting through the plate and compressing the metal on the 
> edges.  I used a
> disk sander to straighten the edge then I ran the panel 
> through a router
> table with a 3/8" radius rounding bit.  It is a nice soft 
> radius for the
> edge.  I needed to then sand starting at 120 grit up to 220 
> to remove a few
> chatter marks and give the panel a perfect edge.  Take a look at the
> pictures of the edge that I added:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~polaraligned/_wsn/page2.html
> 
> Let me know what you think.  Am I nuts?  Well...let's not go there
> 
> Scott
> 
> 
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