| Ron Powell
- Sydney, Australia
How to make your own Glow
in the dark lettering!
Get a sheet of 1/4" or thicker clear acrylic (perspex) sheet cut
to the shape of the complete panel and carefully drill your switch locations.
Do all you're mounting holes etc now, doing it later ruins things. On
the back surface drill a series of holes so that 5mm LEDs go into the
sheet but do not drill right through. For the sheet you have shown about
6 holes would be good. Mask these holes off when you paint the sheet later.
Check your switches will mount up correctly.
Lightly sand the surfaces, edges included, with 400 wet n dry with lots
of water so that you have provide a very good key for paint. Paint on
many thin layers of white gloss paint. You want the paint to be pretty
thick but hard so let it dry right out after every 4 or 5 coats, lightly
sand and continue painting. You want about 1-2mm of paint on there. Acrylic
paint seems to work best.
Then do the same with matt black or what ever color matches your interior
best, but dark is best both for glare and readability reasons.
Then take the sheet to an engraver and ask them to engrave the lettering
deep into the white paint (I have done this for a gyrocopter and so made
a practice sheet for the engraver when I made the first sheet) but as
much as possible without hitting the sheet underneath the paint.
Fit the 5mm high brightness LEDs into the back of the sheet- super glue
works well but back that up with a layer of black silastic over the back
of the LEDs. Common all the LED negatives and earth them, the positive
leg of each LED can be connected via a 1/4W, 470 ohm resister to a single
feed wire going to the instrument light system.
Put your switches in, screw the panel in and your done. During the day
you will have white lettering on a dark panel, at night the lettering
will glow red. Change the LED color to your choice for different dash
colors, fit a dimmer for country road use. By the way you can get acrylic
sheets already treated and ready for engraving from the aviation parts
suppliers - but take two nitro tablets and be sitting down when you ask
for the price! |
