[R-390] Powder-coating update

[John KA1XC]

Barry,
I've got a couple panels out to Howard Mills W3HM for painting and he told 
me that he does not use the powder coat process anymore on the engraved 
panels for the exactly the reasons you described. The engraving can vary a 
lot, I've seen from normal to light to very heavy lettering depths and 
widths.

John



> Gents,
>
> A while ago, I mentioned I was getting the front panels for a couple of
> R390As powder-coated.  I thought I'd report a few things.
>
> First, one of the panels came out just great.  I've finished filling the
> lettering with lacquer and it really looks good.  Nice, clear, distinct
> letters.
>
> The first time they did the knobs, they got very globby with the powder 
> and
> it filled in the grooves to the point that a lot of them were indistinct.
> They removed the coating, recoated a thinner coat, and they look good now.
> Meter covers and escutcheons look good too.  I wish they hadn't coated 
> where
> the lamps go, but I was able to sand that back to metal so the bulbs would
> make contact.
>
> The unfortunate victim in all this is the second panel.  Try as they 
> might,
> they could not lay a thin enough coating on to make the lettering 
> distinct.
> I thought they were pretty much the same, but perhaps the first panel had
> deeper, sharper lettering.  The first try looked terrible.  You could tell
> the engravings were there, but to try to fill them in would have been a
> disaster.  They removed the coating and tried again with a thinner coat.
> This time, some of the lettering would have worked, but other letters 
> would
> be just too indistinct.
>
> They're going to strip it back to metal and I'm going to resort to lightly
> spray painting this one.  I guess I just wanted to warn anyone else that
> unless the engravings are nicely defined and the coaters can keep the 
> finish
> very thin, powder-coating has its drawbacks.
>
> At any rate, I do have one very, very nice front panel now.  The second 
> one
> will be nice too,  and the knobs and escutcheon will be powder-coated, but
> it will just have to be a painted version.
>
> Barry - N4BUQ
>
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