[R-390] Re: Refinishing meters

[blw]

Greg,

I used to do the same thing you are suggesting by hand back in the '70s.
However, it seems that a good grade of real silk would be better since you
will probably be doing only a few prints and not hundreds. Silk will hold up
for this. Maybe steel mesh is better for other reasons, I dunno. Never used
it, but high grade silk was amazing. Also, why not just shoot the screens on
Rubylith? I bet a good arc light system and a high grade emulsion will get
the details of the dial faces pretty good. This saves cutting the Rubylith
like you suggested. I can cut screen material and friskets just as well as
anyone else, but not that kind of thing with dial arcs and numbers. Just a
suggestion from a former commercial artist from the dark ages. (g) By the
way, keep in mind that you will probably have to tile the same image on the
mesh/silk so that one pull would produce maybe 10 or more dial faces. That
is a lot of precision cutting unless you shoot the screen.

Another approach would be easier, more accurate, and certainly cheaper. Look
at Hobbytown or any other R/C hobby supply source and see about decal paper.
I read about it several years ago. It is a paper and you can 'print' your
own decals on this special paper and run it thru the printer. It produces
the same decals like we used on plastic model kits. If this stuff is still
available, I bet a clear full sized decal with black print would look nice
on a white painted metal dial plate. The white arcs and numbers would show
thru and probably look very good.

Just another suggestion.


Barry



> To ALL,
> 
> I could generate some artwork for the meter faces, but what I would need
> is a photo of an actual glowing R390 meter face
> with a machinist's scale in the photo... I want to do the artwork large,
> then have it reduced in a process camera.  I need the machinist's scale
> in the pix to establish actual size...I would appreciate being able to
> see the mounting screw holes for the meter face, etc.....I have an R392
> from Fair with a replacement meter, so I can use that as the benchmark
> for the "new" meter, in case
> screw holes have changes, etc, etc.
> 
> If you can do this, I will do a layout of the artwork, and get it shot
> in the process camera to reduce it.. Hey, I KNOW that
> this is kinda behind the times, but we didn't use CAD/CAM or computer
> rendering when I was designing dials for aircraft instrumentation..we
> did the original anywhere from 4:1 to 10:1 using pc artwork layout tape
> for the indicia, cut to exact size
> with my trusty X-Acto, and a photo typesetter of the old strip type, so
> one cut the lettering out and pasted it up...
> 
> The bigger the better, as scale errors were reduced in the reduction
> process.
> 
> Now, on printing the meter face, I recommend using  either Randolph
> epoxy  Fed-Std 595 color 37038 (flat black) yes krylon flat black would
> work, or flat black baking laquer from Brownells, and to screen the
> indicia, a 600x600 mesh stainless screen using Ulano Wet Direct
> Emulsion.... the printing, I can find no better than Wornow Cat-L-Ink
> flat white (17875) unless you want a different color..
> color.  I am not really set up here for this type of precision screen
> printing, since I am now retired from aerospace engineering,
> but I could do the artwork, if asked nicely enough --hi--
> 
> I will suppose that someone on this list has the ability to do the whole
> layout by computer graphics, so if they do, you have my greatful thanks,
> but if you want it done "the old way" I will do the artwork, get it
> reduced with the emulsion on the right side to
> expose the screen printing plate, and then ya are on your own...these
> are just suggestions....
> 
> 73 es tnx de Greg