How do they make acetate instrument panels?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Techniques
1

Howdy folks,

As the title says, how do manufacturers make the acetate instrument panels? It seems like the material they use is the same stuff as used for overhead slides…Can you just print directly on the acetate with a normal printer? This seems like it would be a great way to do dials…

What do you think?

Cheers,
Alex

2

The problem I ran into when trying that was that most printers print white as the absence of ink, assuming that there is white paper underneath. So, when attempting to print black and white instrument panels, there were a bunch of clear dials and dashes on the panel when it printed out.

A solution would be to slip a piece of paper behind the printed panel and secure them as a single unit.

3

Hey Lofweir,

Thanks for the information. I don’t think that would be a problem, as I would sandwich the acetate between the front drilled out instrument panel, and a backing piece with wires out the back. I was more worried about actually printing it. Did you have any problems with it printing well and in register?

Cheers,
Alex

4

Souns like it should work. As far as the clear (white) bits, just coat the back with white paint. You have to do that even with the Eduad dials. They are clear where the white parts are.

5

If you’re using an inkjet printer, it’s very likely the ink won’t dry on the acetate and will smear very easily. A laser printer might work better.

6

Quite doable with a Xerox machine/laser printer.

Photocopy/print the instrument panel onto a piece of overhead projector film. Paint the reverse side of the panel with white (or other colors) to allow them to be shown through the dial faces. Trim to fit. Cement in place behind a PE or plastic instrument panel which has the dial faces drilled. You may choose to add a drop of clear gloss or epoxy to replicate the dial lens.

7

Howdy folks,

Thanks for the help, I think I’ve got it figured out.

Cheers,
Alex