Alternative front-panel from aluminum dibond

[WattSekunde]

"Aluminum Dibond" is a sandwitch of Aluminum-Polyethylene-Aluminum.

Salierdruck prints full color photo quality prints on it and laminate this with an UV and scratch resist foil.

You can "paint" your design with PS or any other gfx prog in 1440x720dpi.

It's really cheap but you have to do all the drilling & CNC work.

Take a look at Salier Druck

(Maybe you have a similar online seller in your country.)

And here is a finished example from Frank Makowski. Thank's Frank!

keep on,

Michael

Edited November 14, 2010 by WattSekunde

[Screaming_Rabbit]

If you're using this Alu-Dibond material (I also thought about using it once), you need a solution to make sure, that both metal sheets get properly grounded.

If you're using M4 counter sunk screws with a 2mm dibond sheet, this should actually be granted, since the counter sinking will go all the way down to the lower aluminum sheet.

But if you use e.g. M3 counter sunk screws with a 3mm sheet (usually the straight whole would be 3.2 mm then), the screw gets centred from the counter sinking and it is possible that the lower aluminum sheet does not touch the screws and therefore the lower sheet would be ungrounded. In this case you'd have to scratch away parts of the protection foil from the lower aluminum sheet to make some additional contact to e.g. the metal case or jam in a grounding cable if you use a plastic case.

Greets, Roger

[WattSekunde]

I don't use it until now. But I actually paint the design for an earlier project and would try it once. I will post my experience here.

The ground & shield level is an interesting point. This material could work like a capacity.

If you're using a M3 counter sunk screw you can use an additional "Zahnscheibe" from the other side. The teeth would scratch through the foil.

The second question is how easy and precisely it is to drill, saw, cut and mill. I know from Frank that drilling is very easy.

I think for a front-plate with a lot of rectangular or complex holes Schaeffer-AG would be the better solution.

For me it would be nice if Schaeffer-AG offer an optional color print and laminating feature instead of expensive milling it letter by letter.

Michael