Instrument Panel III
5/18/2005 2 hours
Tonight was nothing short of a disaster. It started of really well, I got the panel final wet sanded ready for lettering and clearcoat. I got it done, because my Letraset package had arrived from the UK. Here's the panel final sanded. I used 2000 grit for this. It's so smooth now.
Well, I opened it up and I was shocked to find that it looked more like an Ivory colour than white. Hmmm... It also seems a little different to the commercially available rub down lettering I talked about on the previous page. The back felt very tacky, the other lettering doesn't feel tacky at all. Here's a picture after I'd already cut out some of the transfers.
So, I tried some test pieces. First I tried it on the matt panel. I was not happy when I peeled away the film to see the lettering nicely rubbed onto the panel, but also there was a ton of residue. Hmmm. This was no good. I tried to remove the residue with Acetone, but the lettering came right off too, as expected. I tried rubbing alcohol, and that too took the lettering off although it was more gentle. It wouldn't get the adhesive off without rubbing off the letters. I figured it was because the panel had a matt finish, so I drove to the hangar and picked up my paint cutting compound. I polished up a small area of the panel which came out nice, and tried it again. Still the same. Oh crap. Now I'm back to square 1 again to figure out how the heck to do this right.
Here's the transfer in place. I rubbed it with a soft pencil.
And peeled away to reveal the lettering. Looks nice eh?
Now let's see that at a different angle.... See the residue around the lettering? This is unacceptable. So, back to the drawing board.
After such a disaster, I decided to go write Letraset an e-mail asking them what they recommend. I'll let you know what I get for an answer. In the meantime, I did a search for transfer graphics and came up with a site that claims to have a way to make your own rub down transfers with a laser printer, in practically any colour you like, AND leaves no residue. So, I'm researching this a little further. The website is www.pulsar.gs should you be interested. I'll let you know how I get along. Heck, if it works, you can send me your artworks and I might even produce some for you!
5/21/2005 4 hours
Today I decided to attempt to go down my original road of silkscreening the panel myself. So, I dug out all the PhotoEZ stuff, and the enamel. I used the same artwork that I'd made for the Letraset people to make a transparency film. Then I went outside and exposed it in the sun for 60 seconds. The screen came put perfectly. I was very happy. Looks like today is off to a good start then.
Next it was time to start squidging some paint onto the panel. I have some Nazdar 96000 series screen enamel which is fade resistant. First I tried to tape down the screen, squidged on some paint then peeled away the screen. Rubbish. I ended up cleaning that off. I cleaned off the screen in acetone and then tried again. Same rubbish. Damn this stuff. I noticed that when I cleaned the screen with acetone, that the emulsion side which goes toward the panel surface became a little sticky. I decide to use this to my advantage and stuck down the screen where I wanted it and waited for it to dry off. Now we're talkin'! This actually turned out to be acceptable! I have high standards, and I hold myself to them.
Now we were cooking with gas, so let's try the next ones... Here are some more stuck into position. The FADEC one was the one I tried earlier with little success. Maybe this sticking down method would help.
Here's the passenger warning placard. This was done using the sticking down method, and while it's not looking too bad, I really did struggle to get results any better than this. With a first glance, it looks pretty good, but when you look closely, you can see in some places where the ink has smudged under the screen. No matter what I did, I couldn't improve on this.
Here's some more that I tried... Not much success here either.
Right then, this isn't working out is it?! I seem to have spent so long trying something and wiping it off with acetone and trying it again, using different techniques and it still wasn't meeting my expectations. I'm now back to a cleaned off panel, hoping I can find some other way to do this properly. How the heck are labels and logos put on things out there in the production world? If someone can put something on a shampoo bottle, it must be easy enough to put something on a flat piece of painted metal! Aaaarrrgh! As you might be able to tell, I'm at my wits end now. I wonder how people put labels on avionics buttons and hifi's and televisions and all the other stuff we take for granted everyday. Even the letters on a computer keyboard. I can see now why people just use a Brother P Touch!
I haven't heard yet from the Pulsar people. I'm hoping that this will come through for me, as everything else has turned out to be a disaster.
5/22/2005 Update
I received an e-mail from Pulsar today. Looks like what they have might work. It's a whole new type of process, and it will enable me to make my own rub downs in practically any colour, including metallics. I'll be ordering a kit from them, so hopefully it'll work out well. Of course I'll be posting my results here!
5/23/2005 Update
I spoke with Frank, from Pulsar today. He's the man heading up their operation. It really sounds like this thing will work for me, but there's a small snag. Kit's aren't shipping yet, but hopefully should be in a fortnight or so. I spoke to him about the Letraset rub downs, and I'll send him a sample of what I wanted and what I got, so he can see my woes for himself.
7/1/2005 1 hour
Today, my order came from Pulsar! Naturally, I couldn't resist having a play around with a new toy. Fortunately, in the kit, they send you a sample sheet laser printed so you can experiment as soon as your kit arrives. I followed the instructions on the website for making white decals, which were pretty easy to follow. The Pulsar system is clever stuff, using coloured foils that you melt to the toner based print to make the colour you want. For white decals, you start with the black print on the special paper, then send it through some heated rollers with some grey foil. They toner melts and the grey is then bonded to it. You then peel away the grey foil and miraculously, it leaves the grey colour behind where the print is! You then do the same step with the white foil. Next you apply a carrier to the print and then soak it all in water to remove the original paper backing. Spray it with some adhesive and stick it to what you want!
I tried it on a piece of metal I had lying around, and was quite impressed with the whole deal. This stuff is a lot less delicate than the Letraset stuff I tried previously and is much more resistant to scratching off. In fact, it seems so much better that I decided to go ahead with this method of transfer and forego the clearcoat. The transfers can have all types of finishes, glossy, satin, metallic, holographic. It's amazing!
7/4/2005 5 hours
We were in Chicago this weekend for the 4th of July celebrations with the in-laws. We had a great time. Our Cousin Jack lives on the lakeshore on the 30th floor of a high rise, and the view of Chicago is awesome. We could see so many fireworks from up there! After arriving back home today, I pressed ahead with the panel. Since it's a holiday, nowhere is open where I can do some laser printing for the transfers so I couldn't do that today.
I buffed up the panel to a nice shine. Here, the glovebox door is just lying in position. I think this picture more accurately shows the colour of the panel than any of the shots with flash. It's a nice warm grey.
Then I went down to the hangar to work on it. I needed to put the glovebox door back in properly and make a handle for it so we can get it open! I had a sweet idea for a handle.... An aerofoil shape complete with little rivets...
I'll tap two 4-40 holes in the back of this to attach it to the glovebox door. Then the inside of the door will get some of the flocked paper to hide everything and finish it off nicely. I haven't done this yet, as I need a drill bit the right size.
Next, I started mounting things in the panel for good. I riveted in the door, mounted the warning lamps, the EFIS 1 screen bezel, the ACU, the AOA, Hobbs meter and the air vents. It's starting to look really sweet now! I didn't mount anything that I thought would get in the way of the decal application process.
Here's a close up of one of the vents. We've had these vents for an eternity now. They've finally been used!
Here's the AOA Pro with the buttons I bought for it. These look much better than the little buttons that come with the unit.
Tomorrow, I'm going to get my BFR, so I won't be able to work on the plane until later in the day. We're lucky enough to get the Tuesday off work too! After that, I'll be taking my decal file to Kinko's or somewhere like that to get it laser printed. Then I can start making the decals for this and get it wrapped up.
7/5/2005 3 hours
I spent a lot of time flying today. I got my BFR completed and out of the way. This Saturday, I'll be flying the Diamond DA-40. Now that'll be a little different. So, time spent flying = time not spent building. Hmmmm.
I did do a couple of things today. I started by getting Kinko's to laserprint my artwork file a couple of times, then I set about trying to make some decals. I started off trying to make white ones. Well, Frank at Pulsar said it takes a bit of trial and error to figure it out. Making white is pretty hard, but can be done. I managed to make some half decent white decals, but ran out of prints. I only had two done. In hindsight, I should've done about ten! Oh well, I'll do 'em at work tomorrow. Anyway, when you make the white decals, you start with a grey foil. These foils are really, really thin and are very difficult to keep from wrinkling as they go through the machine. Practice makes perfect.... Back to the grey foil.... It just so happens that this grey looks really good against the panel grey. I was getting excellent results with the grey foil, but the white foil is a little trickier. For some reason, it likes to stick to everything! Humidity doesn't help. I was sat in front of an air conditioning outlet to help overcome this.
Speaking with Frank (on 8/10/05), he mentioned that using a heat gun on the decal before applying the white would help stop it sticking to other stuff. This will take all the moisture out of the paper. This is quite important, as I found moisture to be Pulsar Decal Enemy No. 1! I'll do some tests with making white with the heat gun trick and let you know how it turned out.
So, I decided that because the grey looks so good, and the results were outstanding, that I'd make my lettering grey. Since I'd used up most of my printed sheet with experimentation, I only managed to get one label done thus far! Here it is...
Now this writing is pretty tiny. maybe 3/32 high, maybe even less. Quite pleasing results.
Since I'd run out of labeling prints, I did the glovebox door handle. I bought a set of numbered drill bits today just for the job. I needed a No. 43 for the 4-40 tapped holes for the little screws. Here is the handle in place. Looks pretty sweet!
7/6/2005 4.5 hours
Tonight, I carried on with labeling the panel. This is a lesson in perseverance and patience! While these transfers are initially quite difficult to do, the results they're yielding are the best thing I've tried so far. To that end, I'll keep plodding on. I'm wasting a lot of stuff learning how to do this, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Here's what I've been doing...
First, you print out what you want on the special paper, using a laser printer. This is a bit I cut out of an 8.5x11 sheet.
Next, I taped a piece of grey foil to one end. This seems to be the best way to ensure that the foil doesn't get wrinkled on its way through the laminator. You have to make sure no sticky from the tape is showing, otherwise, it could make a mess inside the laminator.
Then, run it through the laminator, making sure it stays flat and wrinkle free. This is quite tricky. I've been doing small decals. I don't know if bigger decals would be easier or harder.
Here you can see the result after the first pass. The foil has a coating that bonds to the toner on the print, and no wrinkles! Woo hoo! This was about the fourth attempt for the passenger warning placard! As time went on, I started to get more and more proficient at this. I can now do this pretty much off the bat.
Then peel away the foil and look! It's now grey!
Next comes the carrier. This is a very thin mylar film. Once again, I use the sticky tape trick to stop it wrinkling up on me. This also goes through the laminator.
When you've done all this, and if the decal still looks good, you soak it in a water bath. Now, here is where I've had a few failures. Basically, the paper really wants to curl up in the water, and the image is at it's most delicate now. Sometimes, the paper curls up and part of the image is released from the paper and part not, but the mylar has also separated. This causes the image to break, which of course is no good. I expect the bigger the image, the harder this part becomes! I had a chat with Frank recently (8/10/05), and he said that the bond between the carrier and the image can be improved by cleaning the carrier with acetone. I'll try this on the centre console and report results.
Then, very carefully, you rinse off any residual glue from the release paper. Here it is after just rinsing under a gentle stream of water. You can see on the back side is the original toner from the printer. The grey is between the toner and the mylar carrier film.
Next, you dry the image and spray on the adhesive.
Then, you rush over to your instrument panel and stick it on! This is a one shot deal. If you mess it up, you have to go and make another decal. See why this is taking me so long?!!! It's looking great though! I hope I got this in the right place!
Now, the moment of truth... Peel away the carrier, and hopefully it'll all stick down nicely like this one did! Any residual adhesive can be easily wiped away with rubbing alcohol. If you mess up completely, take out the acetone and wipe the whole decal away. I might redo this one because some of the letters are ever so slightly rough around the edges.
Here are some more pics of some other decals I've done so far. I still have a load to do!
On this overall panel shot, you can see how far I've gotten tonight. I stuck white tape on to help me align the text for the switches.
7/9/2005 5 hours
Today, I spent more time doing this labeling. Well, I can finally say I'm done with it. It turned out really well, so I'm pretty pleased with it. I think the Pulsar decals are the best way to do this I've seen so far. It's even better than some screen printed panels on Vendor stands at Oshkosh and Sun N Fun. If you're in a quandry like I was about how to label your panel professionally, then this is the way to do it. I'm sure it will work equally well for other applications too, it just came at the perfect time for me, just when I was about to give it all up and buy a P-Touch! Oh the thought of it!
I also finished the warning lamp text. This was so easy after all the panel labeling! Just printed out some Avery clear label material with the text I wanted and put it in the lamp. These lamps come apart easily, and have a white insert with a coloured lens over the top. You stick your sticker on the white insert, snap it into the lens, and then snap the whole thing back into the lamp. Easy.
I also spent some time working out the new host for the website. Hopefully the transistion will go smoothly, and nobody will know any difference, apart from maybe a speed improvement.
Here's a shot of the completed panel (labeling anyway)....
And the warning lamps....
So, tomorrow is going to be a big day at the hangar. The panel will be fitted for good, and all the instruments fitted. I think I have enough screws to do it! Another cool thing will be updating the Blue Mountain EFIS 1 to the 2.51 software revision. This rev was a biggie, and changes the whole database system over to Jeppesen. There are a whole bunch of other improvements too. That's something I like about their product, it just keeps getting better and better.
It was a good day at the hangar today. I got the instrument panel in for good, and it looks fantastic! Here I have fitted all the steam gauges, the switches and the EFIS card reader.
Same stuff, slightly different angle.
Here I have completed the panel! Except for the GX-60 which I haven't got yet! Hopefully, Mike will decide not to use the one he has for his RV-10, and I can take it off his hands and just slide it in. I'm all pre-wired for the GX, so once I slide it in, it's good to go. I left this image big just so you could see it better.
I also completed the update to 2.51 revision for the EFIS 1. It worked great, and now there are VOR's in the flightplan! Sweet! This new Jeppesen database is cool. Here's a close up of the unit in it's permanent home.
