How to make neat professional diy panels repetedly

[Artesia]

     Heres a way of quickly and accurately designing & making front panels which i have found to work extremely well...

     The basic concept is that the stencil for the various cutouts and holes to be drilled is drawn on computer with XARA (in my case). This is then printed to scale on A4 sticky back paper, a large design can be spanned across several sheets. This is then stuck carefully onto the back of the pce of metal being worked. then the panel is drilled carefully from the back through to the front.

     When all the holes (etc) have been drilled, the sticky sheet can be removed; though it wont matter if it doesnt all come off.

     In Full,

     A good 2D cad or drawing program is used to create the drilling/cutting stencil; i would reccomend XARA, as it is cheap, increadibly stable & does pritty much everything you need. The Page layout is set to work in inches (or millimeters), and the size scaling is set to 1:1.

     It is then a good idea to draw the overall outline of the pannel with the box tool (dimensions can be set precisely by entering them directly into the value boxes). Set the colour of the box fill to white, the boarder to black & the linewidth to 0pt (apply this to small parts drawn on the panel). This box then can be used as a refrence as to where the cutouts & holes shall appear on the panel.

     Next draw the various cutouts & holes; it is adviseable to draw small (1mm) circles where pilot holes & corner roundings will go. ..this will really help take the guesswork out of drilling ! Also, if the holes are drawn as circles instead of crosshairs (showing the centerpoint), it will be clearly seen if the hole is slightly out ...or has been drilled too small ..etc.

     Also, you may want to draw the outline of the overlap that a cutout leaves you, before it is visable; which will help alot if a hole does go slightly wrong & you need to improvise by moving its center very slightly...

     There are two extra tools within Xara (and other programs) which will save alot of time messing around:

     One is the alignment tool, which allows you to auto arrange shapes/objects on the page relative to eachother in various fashions. ..for instance the pilot hole point can be automatically perfectly centered on the cutout for a rotary knob.

     The second is the clone array tool, This will take all the work out of drawing & aligning repetitious stuff like the line of knobs on the midibox 64. This works by making and positioning the cutout for the first knob in the row, then copying it to where the row ends. The tool is then used to select the start&end shapes, and the number of clone objects between those points is entered. this will create a evenly spaced array of idential objects 'instantly'. These arrays (button/knob/led banks) can then be copy/pasted to create more lines... etc.

     When the final design is ready, it will need to be 'mirror imaged', before it can be printed to work as a back surface cutout template. when this is done, it can be printed out onto sticky back paper.....

     

     Apply the label carefully to the back of the metal (etc) sheet that you will be working on. Then it is a good idea to put masking tape all round the edge of the metal, holding the edges of the label down; this will save your fingers from a slicing & help keep the label securely in place.

     Then use a centerpunch and hammer on the marked pilot hole points; this is best done with the sheet on a hard & non abrasive surface (a good solid wood worktop) ...which will help stop the centerpunch from distorting the metal beyond the intended drilling zone. If you centerpunch and pilot hole, you are more likely to get a accurate & tidy end result, though it is possible to drill without them ...though if so, at least use a pillar drill & sharp bits.

     Drill out the pilot holes & then do the rest of the drilling; the most accurate tool for this is a small workshop pillar drill (screwfix.com £40 ferm), though good results can be had with a handheld drill. You may want to try using titainium coated or cobalt drill bits ..as they cut far more efficiently.

     When it comes to deburring, there are two tricks to getting the rough edges off the holes; one is picking up a drill bit two sizes larger than the hole & turning it on the hole with a little force to peel the burr away. The next is getting a average set of 10" wood/metal files (often £6-10 for 5), and using the shape of file most like the hole on the inside edge of the hole. ...if these two tricks are used togeather, very good results can be had.

     As for cutting out the hole for the likes of the lcd panels, this can be done by drilling a line of holes along the innerline of the cutout (dont try joining the holes up, it doesnt work), and then cutting through the remainder with a coping saw + the metal blade (wilkinsons sell them for £3). This will now leave a hole which has a cerrated inner edge, this can be filed patiently down to the corect shape using a 10" flat faced wood/metal file. Use the small circular one to round out the corners if needed. Fine wet&dry sandpaper against a pce of wood can then be used to take the rough appearence out of the filing.

     One way to get a nice front panel finish with minimum fuss, is to use a belt sander with a medium/fine belt on it, carefully run this over the fixed down (...dont want it in orbit, or your groin!) panel so that a brushed effect appears going in one orientation across the pannel. ..after wiping any metal dust off this can then be laquered over to stop it corroding. In the near future i shall do a properly done webpage article on this & other useful stuff; though right now im kinda busy.

     Oh ...and the other great thing about working with computer generated stencils; you can print it out as many times as you like, to make as many identical panels as you want without the hassle of redrawing onto the metal each time !

     Have fun, and be careful with those powertools :)

[arumblack]

Awesome tips!

[Steven_C]

thanks, that's great!  ;D

[pay_c]

Cool! Nearly the same way I´m doing it!  ;)

One more Tip:

If you have done the Pic with XARA (or whatever), export it somehow to jpg or whatever (if you can´t export it, just make snapshots - there are enough snapshot shareware progs out there - just google - and put those snapshots together to one big pic).

Import that pic into Photoshop (or Corel Draw or what you´re used to), make it the size of your frontplate and then use it as background. With this technique you can easily label all the pots/buttons very precisely.

Fast way to make nice & precise paneldesigns.

Greetz :D

[Guest mooter]

WOW THANK YOU

[moebius]

Nice tips ;) You should probably write Tutorial or HowTo and send it to new Portal!

Haven't tried Xara yet as I'm prefectly happy with Frontpanel Designer: Once you master copying/ aligning it's very easy and fast to use. (As it is, what it says ;) )

But it has it's limitations, mostly because it's meant to be used for designs manufactured by Schaeffer.. and it's CADdish.

So if I need to add bitmap graphics or something, I "print it out" to PDF using CutePDF (600DPI, up to A0 size ::) ).

And as PhotoShop can work with PDF files, any further manipulation is easy.

The best thing is that this works WYSIWYG - no scaling or aligning needed to produce "in scale" print out. (and beware of jpg's (may also be used for alternative graphic compression for PDF's), lossy compression method is bad for lineart graphics.)

Bye, Moebius

[SexyBeast]

Hi,

very nice tips indeed. :)

Here's one by me: if you follow the tip of pay_c to export your design, you better not export it as a JPG, because it's a lossy format. It is especially bad to re-open JPG files, alter them and save them again, because this is like it is with old music tapes: the more often you copy them, the worse they sound.

Also the JPG compression is optimized for full colour pictures and doesn't work well for b/w pictures (of course, it doesn't matter if you get 10 or 100 KBytes...  ;) ) but maybe you like to know...

Better use "TIFF compressed" for things like that!

keep hacking!

regards, SB

[shogun]

I have to agree with Artesia. I m doing panels this way using Xara for many years. (Xara 1, later Xara 2 now Xara X).

I m using described technology to finish panel too instead painting them.

When I finish all metalwork and panel need to be labeled I print final panel layout to transparent foil by laser printer (I mean foil usually used for presentations by overhead projetors). Print panel mirrored, then paint foil by desired color by airbrush. Then you can fix foil to metal or plastic panel by doublesided stick tape.

I m using Xara for example when I need print and make 6 pcb board at once by photoprocess, exporting data from eagle to xara etc.

Xara is simple. stable and easy to use to me (compared f.o. Corel draw 9).

Xara is vector based software working different manner from bitmap based Photoshop so I cant recommend to do fine job by any bitmap editor.

[Jidis]

Thanks for the tips! I've gotten really good with wood and cabinetry over the years, but my metal skills suck.

I use a similar layout technique, but with regular paper and a can of spray adhesive. It's probably more messy. I'll try to track down the sticky paper for my next one. I'm also using Canvas (v3.5-old) for my layouts, but I have to work on the Mac or one of my Win98 machines. I've been using it for over a decade, so it's hard to leave. The sizing is pretty accurate.

I'm wondering if anyone has had decent results with the "Gootee" PCB transfer technique to move toner onto metal. I did a headphone amp on aluminum like that years ago and it seemed to work, but the metal box probably wasn't the best substrate. It wasn't perfectly flat on the sides and was hard to hold the iron to. I'm thinking with a nice flat panel, of the ideal type of metal, you should be able to get the same results as the PCB transfers (which have worked very well here). 

For those that haven't read it, Gootee's page is here-

http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteepc.htm

He's also swearing by a new type of paper from Staples. I've got some, but haven't used it yet. The toner has been all or nothing here. My first attempt was printed at a local shop, and nothing transferred correctly. I found a copy machine that used the right type and it was smooth sailing from then on.

                             -George

[jmshep]

Here's another trick that I use all the time when I'm laying out designs on metal sheet. Make a photo-copy of the design in reverse, using a good machine (any office supply or copy center box will do.) Make extra copies, one for your files, and others if you screw up. Align the paper on the metal sheet, design side down, and secure the edges with tape. Make sure the paper is flat against the metal.

Now the nasty part: Transfering the design from the paper to the metal. This is done by releasing the fused toner on the paper with Acetone. Acetone is a solvent, it is smelly, concentrated fumes can cause problems and it will quickly remove all of the oil and moisture from your skin, so wear  rubber or nitrile gloves, and use in a well ventilated area. You can buy it at any hardware store. (At least in the US, don't know about sourcing across the pond.) Completely wet the paper with acetone (the paper will turn translucent.) by rubbing it with a saturated cotton ball. Apply good pressure, this will help the transfer process.

Wait a few minutes, remove the tape and carefully peel back the paper. Most of the design should now stick to the metal surface. Handle it with care because it will smudge off if you aren't careful. The design lasts long enough for me to pierce (drill) and saw (or punch) out the bits I don't want.  If you do accidentally wipe off the design, just clean the metal with a cotton ball and some acetone (did I mention the gloves and the ventilation?) wipe it dry and try again. It's quick, cheap, works pretty well and there's no annoying paper and glue gumming up the drill bits.

Cheers,

Jim

[Twin-X]

xara will become open source!!!

http://www.xaraxtreme.org/news/11-10-05.html

[Davo]

Now the nasty part: Transfering the design from the paper to the metal. This is done by releasing the fused toner on the paper with Acetone. Acetone is a solvent, it is smelly, concentrated fumes can cause problems and it will quickly remove all of the oil and moisture from your skin, so wear  rubber or nitrile gloves, and use in a well ventilated area. You can buy it at any hardware store. (At least in the US, don't know about sourcing across the pond.) Completely wet the paper with acetone (the paper will turn translucent.) by rubbing it with a saturated cotton ball. Apply good pressure, this will help the transfer process.

Cheers,

Jim

This sounds very much like the toner-transfer process except you use acetone and a cotton ball instead of a clothes iron or laminator.  How sharp are the edges when you do this?  How much effort is required to remove the toner?  I'll have to investigate this approach for making printed circuit boards.