Aluminum plates - how?

[bechbox]

Anyone here know how and where to get plates like this made?

 

[tegendemuur]

There's likely company near you as well. You see these things on lots of professional machinery...

Metal Tags, Labels: Custom Printed | Membrane Switch Graphic Overlays

Industrial Nameplate supplies the highest quality custom printed metal, polyester, vinyl tags, labels, nameplates. We also produce durable Lexan and Mylar membrane switch graphic overlays.

www.industrialnameplate.com

Nameplates (industrial) – Focks Labels

www.focks.nl

Machine commission name plates

Bespoke machine plates, logo plates and industrial nameplates with a durable and wear-resistant finish. From aluminium, plastic or stainless steel.

www.polychromal.com

et cetera....

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

If you're not looking to do it yourself, your best bet is probably to find a local trophy/sign shop. They should be able to do a run for you for not too much money.

 

[Erik S]

I looked into screen printed tags at one point, but the price per tag for small quantities was more than I wanted to pay.

I ended up finding the video @Bricksnbeatles posted above and I've been making tags following that process. It's a lot of work, the results are inconsistent, and dealing with acid is unpleasant, but I like the look of the ones that work out.

https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/what%E2%80%99s-on-your-workbench.13146/post-288656

I was somewhat obsessed with the look of this tag from a company that used to make toolboxes and my original idea was to try and get something similar.

 

[bechbox]

Thanks a lot guys! Boy, that etching stuff looks cumbersome. Focks.nl is not too far away from me (I'm in Denmark), so I'll see if they can do it at a reasonable price.

This sent me down a rabbit hole in the laser world - oh boy, do I want a laser engraver now

 

[finebyfine]

Etsy is a decent place to look for one-offs of two color ones. I've had some plastic ones made for unrelated stuff at my job but the place also did metal ones.

 

[Nostradoomus]

if you know how to use diptrace or CAD of some type jlcpcbcan print on aluminum for cheap. I just laid a little tag out and 5 of them is 3 dollars. Gonna order and see what they look like.

 

[bechbox]

if you know how to use diptrace or CAD of some type jlcpcbcan print on aluminum for cheap. I just laid a little tag out and 5 of them is 3 dollars. Gonna order and see what they look like.

Nice! Looking forward to see those!

 

[Nostradoomus]

Nice! Looking forward to see those!

Same. Just ordered but I used the cheap shipping option so who knows when they'll get here

 

[Alan W]

Aluminum is very easy to etch, but none of the professional etchers we used to use wanted to do it, because it is TOO easy to etch, and undercutting (where the etch starts to eat into under the resist) is too much of a problem. If we wanted something that looked like aluminum, I would get magnesium plate etched. This was also a good solution if the palate needed to be more than 1/16th inch thick—brass and stainless are available that thick, but become very expensive. For precise etching, you really need to go with brass or stainless though. The best place I'm aware of is too expensive for our use as hobbyists; I got a quote for several custom fender type neck plates, but at $120 each (and that was from 1/32 inch stainless that I was going to bond over the steel plates) I certainly didn't go there.

Services — Insight Designs

www.etchnow.com

The least expensive approach we would take for tags was laser cutting Rowmark. Their brushed aluminum with black in the middle is certainly nice enough for any pedals I'd make. Machine engraving, if you can find someone that does it, can be affordable, or way too expensive—it depends on who's doing it. Most of the "old guys" that were not too expensive have retired though.

 

[Nostradoomus]

This is what jlc's 3D gerber viewer spits out for a plate. It says the surface silk is white but shows bare aluminum colour here. We'll see when they arrive (i didnt order this design lol)