So having looked at a lot of failures on my project I began looking for places where I could extract some value. First success, the buttons!
YAY! Buttons fit!
Then checking out the engraved converted to outline fonts turned out quite well.
The engraved areas looked pretty good.
Then I tried filling it in with paint…
Infilling the text
More infilling
Finally a look at what the panel looks like with the cover paper removed and the LEDs installed.
Infilled panel with LEDs installed
Wow – the infill painting looks great! I’m glad you’ve been able to get some value out of these initial parts. 🙂
I also learned that the particular blue I used needs to be a lighter blue if I ever want to see it easily… White of course comes out awesome. Orange came out way better than I hoped. In a well lit area it looks fine but as soon as it’s a little bit darker the blue starts to disappear. I expected that but it was way more than I anticipated. When I finish the “redo” I’ll try painting a little better so I don’t end up with any bubbles in it but it worked well.
I’ll dig out my “light box” for photography when I get a final version ready so it’s more evenly lit and use the DSLR to show the finished product. I’m going to start testing my corner assembly pieces to see if I need to move any of the screw holes this weekend but so far it looks like they’re ok. At least this way since I know it’s “screwed up” I can test things to improve my technique or try different glues etc without worrying about “wasting it”.
I’m shrinking up a couple of the cut outs so they fit more snugly this next time and I also figured I need to do something about the power connections. The “inbound” plug is fine but the “outbound” plugs I have are made for thinner panels. The acrylic is too thick so I’ll either need to use different cables/ends so I can screw the receptacles down to the acrylic or else I’ll need to make it have a metal panel that screws to the back side instead. I may just need to switch to different connectors to make it easier. Inbound will be typical male “computer” type cable receptacle and outbound will switch to the female version perhaps.