Tom Baldwin Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 Has anybody found a good solution to applying legends to home-made equipment panels? I'm building some kit in black 19" rack cases, and would like to label the connections in a way which will look smarter and neater than your average label printer labels could achieve.I could use white "Letraset" type dry-rub transfers, but for the amount of labelling I need to do, that's going to take a lot of time to do well (especially with my skill level). Engraving is probably out as well, for cost reasons. I had wondered about the inkjet "paper" you can buy for transferring designs onto black T-shirts - but I can't get it straight in my head how this would work when I try to "print" white text... Cheers, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamplighter Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 Tom The age old problem ! After many years of using letraset, with mixed results, I'vejust seen a new labelling machine at work that takes a rubdown transfer tapeand as capable of up to 16 lines of text. This could be the answer! Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 So you'll trying to individually mark up the connector in/outs yes? If this is what you mean we use one of these The output ribbons will just fit between the gap between connectors and the print is just that little bit more visible in low light conditions Have a hunt at your local office supplier of choice HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
computer Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 I also reccomend what TeeJay suggested, we have several of them here and use them to mark up stuff. However they can look not so professional on the front panels, etc. There is something a friend of mine uses which is similar but its printed in sort of silvery white onto a transparent stick ribbon, which might look better. I belive it uses the same printer system, just a different cartridge of ribbon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slim_mcslim Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 well we use one of those letra tag label printers too, but they are not the most professional of devices... you could look at two options, laser engraving, pribably isn't as expensive as you imagined, but is a lot more beneficial for doing a number of panels. or you could get some legends made up as vinyl graphics at a sign company, its like the lettraset idea, but the words are already made up for you and mounted onto transfer paper by the sign shop and are generally very inexpensive, however depending on their equipment they might not be able to do very small lettering and no you can't print white onto t-shirt transfers all you can do is print black and leave a blank gap where you want the white, then paint white paint onto the rack panel, then somehow get the t-shirt transfer and and iron to meet with the rack panel to fuse it on (could possibly do it with a heat gun) but the heat would cause the paint to peal off... well theres some ides paul... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 and no you can't print white onto t-shirt transfersCouldn't you set the text colour to white and the highlight to black? (you can in M$ Word) EDIT: no you couldn't, I bow to your superior logic paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 Letraset will do you custom letraset online.Best option, and what we've done recently, is to take said panels down to a screenprinter & get it printed on the panel directly: it's absolutely the right answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 8, 2004 Share Posted November 8, 2004 It's a real pity that these guys don't ship overseas. Front Panel Express Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANDYLASER Posted November 8, 2004 Share Posted November 8, 2004 How about THIS from Rapid Electronics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilf Posted November 8, 2004 Share Posted November 8, 2004 Or These people http://www.megauk.com/ ,They Supply rapid and will sell direct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted November 8, 2004 Share Posted November 8, 2004 I once got a local key-cutting place to engrave a stagebox for me. It wasn't too expensive, although the quality of their work wasn't wonderful. Canford Audio offer an engraving service at reasonable price, and I've had them do panels for me before, with good results. You could also try Bryant Broadcast. Engraving of switch plates is very common in the electrical installation business, but I've no idea who does that sort of thing. Perhaps I should look in the yellow pages! Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 If you do the leg-work (suggest yellow-pages to start from) you can get custom panels (including logos etc.) punched & screen-printed for significantly less than the cost of Canford's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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