[R-390] Silkscreening Front Panels, Anyone?

[n4buq at knology.net]

> Why is it "used to be engraved"?
> 
> If it is still engraved but stripped paint, there have been multiple
> discussions on this list on how to refinish an engraved front panel.  You
> should be able to find them in the archives.  Silk-screening is neither
> required nor used.
> 
> - Greg

I've had a few replies wondering about this so perhaps I should explain to 
the list.

I had two engraved panels that I stripped and had them powder-coated.  One 
turned out fine (lettering was still distinct enough so that they could be 
filled in and the lettering still looked crisp) but one did not.  For some 
reason, the lettering was filled in way to much with the coating leaving 
the edges of the letters very rounded and somewhat indistinct.  It wouldn't 
have looked good at all to try to fill them in with paint.

I asked them to strip and recoat the panel, trying to coat with the 
thinnest coating possible.  It still looked bad so I asked them to remove 
the coating again and I would deal with it myself.  I found out that they 
remove the coating by heating the panel to a very high temperature and 
basically burn off the old coating.  Apparently this was quite rough on the 
lettering as well and the panel looked pretty rough after this.

I decided to fill in what was left of the engravings with JB Weld, wet-sand 
the panel smooth, have it powder-coated, and then silk-screen it.  For 
powder-coating, JB Weld will work for very small imperfections, but for 
larger voids like these letters, it doesn't stick very well because it is 
non-conductive.  This resulted in significant ghosting where the letters 
used to be.

I decided to simply wet-sand the powder-coating off and prime and spray 
paint it.  This has worked very well.  The panel sanded absolutely smooth 
and now that it's primed, you cannot see where the engravings once were.

It's kind of sad to lose the engraved lettering this way and kind of odd 
that one panel turned out fine and the other one didn't, but that's the way 
it worked out.  I've put a whole lot of work into this panel and am quite 
tired of it at this point.  I want to get it lettered and back on the frame 
and be done with with.

Sorry for the long post, but it might steer someone else clear from 
attempting the powder-coating route.  It will work, but it is risky and 
sometimes doesn't work out.  I think there is a well-known panel finisher 
who fills in the engravings and silkscreens them as well.  I think he tried 
the powder-coating thing and got similar results.  YMMV.

Barry - N4BUQ