[R-390] Paint/Lacquer Sticks, redoing engraved panels

[Ken Harpur]

That sounds like an amazing looking radio. When you get the meters done I'd love to see a photo too!

I have a panel on one of my radios that needs refinishing but haven't bothered yet, for two reasons...
first I have no skills whatsoever when it comes to spray painting and would have to find someone to 
do it for me and second, with a nice new panel the other radios would look a bit shabby and I'd have 
refinish those as well (can't be having mis-matched panels you know...haha).

The glow in the dark lettering is a nice idea...and I like the idea of a nice soft light on the meters.
A nice ambience in a dimly-lit shack...

Best regards,
Ken Harpur
ZL3AA



On 27/04/2012, at 3:49 AM, Tisha Hayes wrote:

> I use a pretty dense paint for redoing front panels. It is an aviation
> paint that is normally used to do things like the struts on landing gear
> and selected areas on an airplane. It bonds to just about anything and
> after drying/ baking is beautiful looking. A dark shade of grey with a high
> gloss finish.
> 
> The downside of this paint is that it tends to fill in the engraving and
> makes it difficult to get good fill. I came up with a technique where I
> paint and then have very deep engraving areas for letter filling with an
> acrylic blend.
> 
> After I chemically strip a front panel and do the plastic spatula scrape I
> sand the panel with scotchbrite pads (you can get different grits). Then I
> apply a very thin layer of plaster to where the engraving will be and wipe
> down and do a once over with a scotchbrite pad and a tacky rag (auto body
> supply stores sell those). What you end up with is a shiny panel with white
> lettering filled in flush. Then I shoot the paint (3-4 layers with light
> sanding in between, this takes a few days to do). After the last paint
> layer I let the panel dry at room temperature for a day. The paint is still
> soft at this time.
> 
> Now I take a dental pick and poke down on each engraving, the plaster just
> cracks and pops right out of the painted panel. I apply a water based latex
> paint that is a blend of white and a glow-in-the-dark paint that shows up
> as green in dark light but is off-white/clear in normal lighting. After I
> do the wipe down on the letter fill and the acrylic dries for a few hours I
> put the panel into my convection oven and heat the panel to 250 F (until
> the thermostat bings to tell me it has reached the temperature and then I
> turn off the convection heat but leave the ventilation fan running. I let
> the panel slowly cool down all night long in the oven.
> 
> I end up with a really nice panel, with a very deep looking paint finish
> and completely filled in lettering. With the glow-in-the-dark paint mix the
> front panel will have a faint greenish glow that lasts all night long just
> off of a few hours of normal room lighting.
> 
> My next project is to make new meter bezels out of off white transparent
> plastic (like what you get on a coffee can lid). Heat transfer on new
> scales that include S units with a dBm scale for the RF meter and mV, dB
> for the line level meter, paint the backside of the plastic with the glow
> in the dark stuff and add a very tiny white LED to the internals of the
> panel meters to provide a diffuse white light. I would end up reversing the
> color scheme on the meters from white/green on a black background to
> white/red on a off white background that has a greenish glow (non
> radioactive meter fronts that are much sharper lettering than the existing
> meters).
> 
> -- 
> Ms. Tisha Hayes/ AA4HA
> -
> "Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain"
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