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MB-6582 in Ponoko case


ilmenator
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So I'm a bit confused. Did you make the case just fit to the MB-6582 boards from SmashTVs shop? Is the CS being held in a similar way to how the sammichSID is setup?

Yes, the case fits the MB-6582 boards from Wilba/SmashTV. I don't know how the SammichSID is constructed, but as I said above, the CS board is mounted to the top panel, the base board to the bottom panel.

btw what do you use to fill the engravings? marker?

That is enamel paint.

I like enamel paint (like model airplane stuff) cleans up with the paint thinner

Me too. The paint thinner leaves a little residue which can be wiped off with Isopropyl (Isopropanol) alcohol. But only if the thinner has not dried, so you need to be quick. It also does not work 100% on the matte finish.

I bought some Gloss Enamel Markers. They seem to be working quite nicely. And touching up is quite easy.

That actually sounds like a very good idea. Where did you get them from?

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That painted engraving is awesome!

Even though I promoted the technique of painted engraving on Ponoko panels, I still can't get a great finish every time (which is why I got some Lexan overlays made for the current batch of sammichSID and will sell the spares to past builders very soon, sort of an apology for such a messy DIY process).

Can you share how you defined the engraving as Ponoko-compatible? i.e. is this "three-stroke" vector like sammichSID, or raster only, or raster plus vector outline?

And did you paint with backing paper still attached to the panel (like is done with sammichSID) or just really carefully and with lots of cleaning up afterwards?

P.S. to all: the "easy" way to get the panel cutouts/engraving into Ponoko-compatible SVG is via the published DXF files of the panels, imported into Inkscape. I've been using this technique lately, design in Solidworks, create drawing of all panels, export to DXF, input into Inkscape, combine paths, set strokes, send SVG to Ponoko.

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Can you share how you defined the engraving as Ponoko-compatible? i.e. is this "three-stroke" vector like sammichSID, or raster only, or raster plus vector outline?

And did you paint with backing paper still attached to the panel (like is done with sammichSID) or just really carefully and with lots of cleaning up afterwards?

All engravings are heavy raster only, the vector letters were converted into raster letters according to the instructions on the Ponoko site. I had my panels made by Formulor.de, and there was no backing paper attached to the panel. The only thing that was there was the huge sheet of self-adhesive paper they stick on the already lasered panel in order to remove the stuff from the laser table. So yes, there was a little frustration at first.

In the end, I was trying to be really careful, only filling two or three letters at a time, removing excessive paint with a cotton bud soaked in thinner, and then remove the residue with another cotton bud soaked in isopropanol / isopropyl alcohol. The thing is that you need to be fast with the last step, because once the thinner has dried up the residue can only be removed with more thinner, but not with the alcohol. On the other hand, if you get too much alcohol into the paint-filled engravings, then the filling will look bubbly and not evenly distributed after drying. I think for kits that are produced in numbers, a Lexan overlay is the perfect solution. For a one-off, it's a bit expensive...

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yeah, overnight. The longer you wait, the more difficult it is to thin out so I dont go overboard with the dry time. I made the mistake of leaving a panel with paint on for a week and it was a pain to get it cleaned up. I use a LOT of paint (several coats worth) to make sure that the engraving is filled and use a soaked lint free wipe with the thinner before wiping with IPA. I think the next time I will do this (next week actually) I want to try actually rinsing the part with IPA using a squirt bottle instead of wiping

Edited by Altitude
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No protective paper? What a bummer.

Ponoko says the following:

"Most of the acrylic sheets we use come with protective paper on both sides. It’s possible for us to leave this paper on when making your design, which we tend to do where it will not interfere with your engraving. The main downside to this is needing to peel paper off both sides of the acrylic, which can be time consuming and tricky if your design is intricate."

Maybe Formulor removes it, because they think it's customer-friendly.

I can confirm Altitude's method, works too with acetone and fresh paint. Acetone is not corrosive on the black and white Sammich cases and doesn't leave a stain.

But when you use black paint on the white acrylic panel, some black particles are left. You can see that with the yellow particles on Altitude's panel. Doesn't look that clean to me.

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everything I have ever ordered from ponoko has had the paper on it but it really makes little difference since the edges of the infill always come out REALLY rough and once you start cleaning it gets everywhere anyway. Those pics above are from a post on another site and I didnt take finished pics, you can get it all off. I do white textured with black infill regularly

Edited by Altitude
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everything I have ever ordered from ponoko has had the paper on it but it really makes little difference since the edges of the infill always come out REALLY rough and once you start cleaning it gets everywhere anyway. Those pics above are from a post on another site and I didnt take finished pics, you can get it all off. I do white textured with black infill regularly

Then there's something wrong with my paint or my eyes are too good. I used both IPA and acetone and only with acetone I managed to get the fresh black paint (Revell black enamel) from the panel. IPA didn't do the job. But even with acetone ~0,02% of the black pigments stayed in the rough surface. It looks a little bit smudged if you take a closer look and have good lighting. However, this doesn't apply to the white enamel pen from Edding on the black arcylic panel. There I managed to remove 100% of the enamel. Not sure why. But a protective paper ensures to minimze the amount of enamel left on the panel.

Edited by kristal=
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With my Formulor.de order there was no backing paper on the P3 size panel (which the MB-6582 case was done from). However, I had two other P1 size items in that same order which had a plastic foil on both sides, the smooth and the rough one. Maybe I was just unlucky with the P3 panel.

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@Kristal are you only using acetone and IPA or are you also using paint thinner? If you are using enamel paints, mineral spirits are a must, acetone and IPA wont cut it on their own

@ilmenator Odd, they probably forgot to use it on the P3 size. The top is where you really need it. I've never seen that and I order at least once a month

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That actually sounds like a very good idea. Where did you get them from?

I bought the enamel markers online from a "hobby" shop in the Netherlands. The markers are from a company called Marabu. Maybe you can find them online in a shop near you.

So far i used them to paint the green pcb from a lcd black. It was in the clear acrylic case of my shruti-1. The green didn't match the red polivoks pcb so good :wink: I also painted the metal hex distance bolts in the shruti. Which also worked out great.

Update: today i used a white marker on my Shruti XT. It worked quite well and you can do the touch up with a alcohol based product.

Edited by Shuriken
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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 years later...

Sry for the necrobump...don't want to make a new thread for a very specific question...

From the ponoko site, it says

The acrylics are cut with protective paper on, and all areas with heavy raster/vector engraving are ready to be painted. 

I assume ponoko have since began engraving with the backing paper on? So that the engraving can basically just be spray painted?

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