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From: Joel Koltner on 26 Jul 2010 16:46 "Joerg" <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message news:8b69nnF9lrU1(a)mid.individual.net... > What I did a lot was brush the aluminum, paint it under a lot of heat, > then Letra-Set and then clear-coat. That way not all my stuff had this > dull-silvery look. The color selection was not by taste but by whatever > was on sale, poison-oak green and so on :-) I built a controller for a scanning tunnelling microscope (someone else had designed the circuitry and had boards made -- I just had to stuff/solder the boards and do all the mechanical work -- and let me tell you, it had a LOT of pots and switches on the front panel...) once and used a sky blue front panel (this was 3U rack-mounted) with ~1/8" thick horizontal red pinstripes at the top and the bottom and black lettering. I thought it looked pretty cool. A few other people referred to it as the "Fisher Price" controller. :-) Ah well... for the kind of peanuts we were being paid as student hourlies, no one was seriously complaining. Normally for rack-mounted gear we used front panels from Bud, which came pre-painted in beige (the shop kept them in stock). Although I once bought a few rack chasses for work projects from some company that focused primarily on audio electronics that were semi-gloss black, which looked pretty sleek. > Like this amplifier: > http://www.analogconsultants.com/ng/images/QB5amp2.jpg Didn't anyone tell you anything green has to be environmentally "sensitive?" How does a linear amplifier fall into that category!? :-) Seriously, it looks good. Nice job... ---Joel
From: Joerg on 26 Jul 2010 17:13 Joel Koltner wrote: > "Joerg" <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message > news:8b69nnF9lrU1(a)mid.individual.net... >> What I did a lot was brush the aluminum, paint it under a lot of heat, >> then Letra-Set and then clear-coat. That way not all my stuff had this >> dull-silvery look. The color selection was not by taste but by whatever >> was on sale, poison-oak green and so on :-) > > I built a controller for a scanning tunnelling microscope (someone else > had designed the circuitry and had boards made -- I just had to > stuff/solder the boards and do all the mechanical work -- and let me > tell you, it had a LOT of pots and switches on the front panel...) once > and used a sky blue front panel (this was 3U rack-mounted) with ~1/8" > thick horizontal red pinstripes at the top and the bottom and black > lettering. > > I thought it looked pretty cool. > > A few other people referred to it as the "Fisher Price" controller. :-) > I'd probably have done it all in red, white and blue :-) > Ah well... for the kind of peanuts we were being paid as student > hourlies, no one was seriously complaining. > > Normally for rack-mounted gear we used front panels from Bud, which came > pre-painted in beige (the shop kept them in stock). Although I once > bought a few rack chasses for work projects from some company that > focused primarily on audio electronics that were semi-gloss black, which > looked pretty sleek. > I also like black but that required white Letra-Set labels. Those were special order and super-expensive. >> Like this amplifier: >> http://www.analogconsultants.com/ng/images/QB5amp2.jpg > > Didn't anyone tell you anything green has to be environmentally > "sensitive?" How does a linear amplifier fall into that category!? :-) > This amp was decidedly non-green. The filaments alone guzzle 200W. Legal limit was 750W and that could easily be done with the usual 230V/16 circuit. But if you drove it hard one brief whistle into the mike ... poof ... all lights out. > Seriously, it looks good. Nice job... > Thanks. Inside it's a bit more rag-tag though. Had to use what was there. For example, the plate terminal coolers you can see in the back aren't the prescribed stock. Those would have cost tens of bucks. So I sawed off some pieces of heatsink. Looked pretty cool, too. But woe to anyone who thinks they look innocent and touches one, 5kV on there, from a power supply of the same 19" size as this amp. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
From: John Larkin on 26 Jul 2010 18:18 On Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:32:51 -0700, Joerg <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: >Sjouke Burry wrote: >> Joerg wrote: >>> Joel Koltner wrote: >>>> "John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in >>>> message news:lthr4610pin79ldpnflqu3kd23p3g7lqgp(a)4ax.com... >>>>> A sheet of kiss-cut peel-off vinyl letters from Flax, the nearby art >>>>> supply store. They'll eventually rub off, so I'll turn it over to >>>>> testing and let them pretty it up. >>>> If you spray some clear acrylic over it it'll last for years... that's >>>> what we did back at university, and there was some really nicely done >>>> equipment there that was probably well over a decade old, holding up >>>> well. (...although there were plenty of hacked-up boxes with Sharpie >>>> marker lettering on them too...) >>>> >>> >>> That's what I did as a kid, for my home-made ham radio gear. However, I >>> found it would only hold up to daily abuse if the aluminim was brushed a >>> bit and usually I also heated it before spraying, to the point where the >>> lettering just barely did not begin to shrivel. On non-brushed anodized >>> aluminum it all flaked off in due course. The lettering I used was from >>> a company called "Letra-Set", not sure if available in the US. It was >>> the professional stuff, otherwise used for shopping displays or >>> advertising material. >>> >> I have used the Letraset solution for about 30 years. >> It had two point though: >> It worked very well on sand-blasted aluminium, ... > > >Being on a student budget that was out of reach for me. I found that 600 >grit sand paper did the job nicely. When money was really tight i used >250 grit loaded with chalk. Our teachers threw out the chalk if down to >less than an inch and let me have those discards. > >Sometimes I used other brands for the letters because Letra-Set could >only be bought at "select" stationery stores, meaning lots of money. No wonder you begrudge every penny spent on parts. Reminds me of the Woody Allen bit: "We were so poor, we couldn't afford a dog. So I had a pet ant. We called him Spot." John
From: krw on 26 Jul 2010 18:36 On Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:29:43 -0700, Joerg <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: >Joel Koltner wrote: >> "John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in >> message news:lthr4610pin79ldpnflqu3kd23p3g7lqgp(a)4ax.com... >>> A sheet of kiss-cut peel-off vinyl letters from Flax, the nearby art >>> supply store. They'll eventually rub off, so I'll turn it over to >>> testing and let them pretty it up. >> >> If you spray some clear acrylic over it it'll last for years... that's >> what we did back at university, and there was some really nicely done >> equipment there that was probably well over a decade old, holding up >> well. (...although there were plenty of hacked-up boxes with Sharpie >> marker lettering on them too...) >> > >That's what I did as a kid, for my home-made ham radio gear. However, I >found it would only hold up to daily abuse if the aluminim was brushed a >bit and usually I also heated it before spraying, to the point where the >lettering just barely did not begin to shrivel. On non-brushed anodized >aluminum it all flaked off in due course. The lettering I used was from >a company called "Letra-Set", not sure if available in the US. It was >the professional stuff, otherwise used for shopping displays or >advertising material. Never had trouble with anodizing flaking off. Maybe you got E. German aluminum. ;-) I think I still have my transmitter and last time I checked (when we moved - '08) the panel was still in good shape. I used Letra-Set on that, too, with DataKote (?) sprayed over it. I built the transmitter in '66.
From: Joerg on 26 Jul 2010 18:44
John Larkin wrote: > On Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:32:51 -0700, Joerg <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> > wrote: > >> Sjouke Burry wrote: >>> Joerg wrote: >>>> Joel Koltner wrote: >>>>> "John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in >>>>> message news:lthr4610pin79ldpnflqu3kd23p3g7lqgp(a)4ax.com... >>>>>> A sheet of kiss-cut peel-off vinyl letters from Flax, the nearby art >>>>>> supply store. They'll eventually rub off, so I'll turn it over to >>>>>> testing and let them pretty it up. >>>>> If you spray some clear acrylic over it it'll last for years... that's >>>>> what we did back at university, and there was some really nicely done >>>>> equipment there that was probably well over a decade old, holding up >>>>> well. (...although there were plenty of hacked-up boxes with Sharpie >>>>> marker lettering on them too...) >>>>> >>>> That's what I did as a kid, for my home-made ham radio gear. However, I >>>> found it would only hold up to daily abuse if the aluminim was brushed a >>>> bit and usually I also heated it before spraying, to the point where the >>>> lettering just barely did not begin to shrivel. On non-brushed anodized >>>> aluminum it all flaked off in due course. The lettering I used was from >>>> a company called "Letra-Set", not sure if available in the US. It was >>>> the professional stuff, otherwise used for shopping displays or >>>> advertising material. >>>> >>> I have used the Letraset solution for about 30 years. >>> It had two point though: >>> It worked very well on sand-blasted aluminium, ... >> >> Being on a student budget that was out of reach for me. I found that 600 >> grit sand paper did the job nicely. When money was really tight i used >> 250 grit loaded with chalk. Our teachers threw out the chalk if down to >> less than an inch and let me have those discards. >> >> Sometimes I used other brands for the letters because Letra-Set could >> only be bought at "select" stationery stores, meaning lots of money. > > No wonder you begrudge every penny spent on parts. ... Actually, no. I spent quite some money on vacuum-variable capacitors, tubes, sockets, made my antennas only from the good stuff (aircraft grade aluminum), and so on. But I skimped on cosmetic stuff such as front panels. And under no circumstances would I dip into the brewsky budget, ever. The penny-pinching came later, on the job, when I had to do my first mass-produced designs, > ... Reminds me of the > Woody Allen bit: "We were so poor, we couldn't afford a dog. So I had > a pet ant. We called him Spot." > Cool :-) -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM. |