Silkscreening hints (link)

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

http://www.guitarfool.com/Silkscreen.html

...works for him...
for a box, you would have to build a kind of frame to get the screen on the right level.

[Sam]

I've done a lot of silkscreen prints on T-shirts and been thinking about trying it on pedals. For the T-shirts I used simple self-adhesive plastic film, which I cut and stuck to the net. This works great for rougher (i.e. simpler) shapes and large letters. But for small letters that would actually fit on a stompbox you'd need to make the mask by other meens than cuting plastic film with a hobby knife.

There is a "photo method" - not very unlike etching PCBs that will allow you to make complex shapes and small details (text for knobs) - even monochrome photographs! I never tried it though...

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Hmmm, wonder if the 'photo method' would work as a resist on PCBs!! pretty funny if it did. Baically the technology is that you have a plastic/gummy kind of green film (gelatin adn dichromate base I think) and when you put a transparency over it, and expose to a lot of ultraviolet, the part the light gets to hardens up. Then you wash out the unexposed part & there is your stencil (which you carefully deposit onto the screen).
You can also get the screen goop as a liquid & paint onto the screen & expose the screen, cutting out the awkward transfer step. Maybe you could paint it straight on the copper.

Though I guess this is probably how photosentised PCBs work anyway!

[Rodgre]

Back when I was in High School (where I took Electronics as my major) that's how we did PC boards: spraying a fresh, clean piece of copper clad with photosensitizer, letting it dry in a dark place, then placing a negative of the PC layout (which I designed by cutting a rubilith 5X the size of the board, then having the design shot in a graphic design shop to make a negative, reduced to the correct size) over the board, exposing it to ultraviolet light for a while, then washing off the unexposed sensitizer, leaving a faint purplish mask where the traces should be, then suspending it in a huge etchant tank which sprayed heated ammonia-persulfate at the board until it all etched away.

For my first board, I made an interface for my guitar to plug into the Paia Gnome synth that I never finished.....

I've also made T-shirt silkscreens this way. Now, after realizing what a PITA it was, I'm happy to spend the money to have t-shirts made for me.

By the way, Has anyone ever considered using rubber stamps to print labels on their pedals? Is that how Analog Man does theirs? I was thinking of getting generic rubber stamps made to print white labels on pedals.

Roger

[Doug_H]

Thanks Paul.  That's a good link.

Doug

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Roger, your high school was SO different to mine :cry: I wonder what the kids there are doing now??

Seriously, thanks for that description, looks like it IS the same process for silk screens & that PCB method.

[bwanasonic]

By the way, Has anyone ever considered using rubber stamps to print labels on their pedals? Is that how Analog Man does theirs? I was thinking of getting generic rubber stamps made to print white labels on pedals.

I have thought about this one. Wondered if silkscreen ink would work - I imagine it would. Keep meaning to test this one. Most crafts stores carry an assortment of rubber stamps with generic clip art type images and text.

Kerry M

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Rubber stamp printing onto a non-absorbent surface is usually pretty tricky, because the ink smears around.
I know a chap who owns a businesss building 'flexographic' printing machines, that print on plastic bag material at high speed. when I see him next I'll see if he has any ideas.
I doubt it would be possible to get a really precise result, but maybe an attractive 'punk' look, depending on context.