Lazertran on aluminum panels

Update: this pic is actually from Luka who also uses it. I'm not seeing Dr. Sketch-n-Etch's pic referenced on Muff's. If anyone knows where to find it, let me know.

via Dr. Sketch-n-Etch on Muff's
"Here's a picture of a panel I made lastnight. This is a 1U x 5U panel made of 0.1" 6061 Al sheet. I printed the label from Front Panel Designer onto Lazertran backwards using an HP 2100M Laserjet printer (the ol' beige cube) running the "Universal Printer" driver from HP (a free download) which allows one to print mirror images. First I printed it on a piece of plain paper. Then I cut a piece of Lazertran to size, leaving about 1/8" extra over each border. I taped this piece onto the sheet of paper over the original image and ran it back through the printer. After I printed the Lazertran, I hit it with a heat gun for a few seconds to fuse the toner, although I doubt this was really necessary. Then I soaked the Lazertran in water to loosen the decal.

I peeled the protective sticker off of a precut aluminum blank (I get these cut to order from the Metal Supermarket) and applied the decal directly to the Al surface, printed side down (and gum side up), with no pretreatments. Once I got it lined up, I squeegeed it smooth with a soft silicone kitchen spatula to remove any air bubbles and water droplets from underneath. Then I ran the panel under cold water and rubbed it with my fingertips to remove the gumming. Finally, I put it on a cookie sheet and popped it in the oven at 170F. After one hour at that temperature, I started increasing the temperature of the oven, by 25F every 20 minutes, until I got to 400F. Hence, the whole procedure took about 3 hours, but for most of that time I was doing something else. After 20 minutes at 400F, I turned off the oven and let the panel cool. The whole procedure was dead easy to do. This morning, I drilled the holes, and there were no issues there either.

After baking, the Lazertran film becomes a hard plastic coating on the aluminum. The excess film at the edges wraps around the sides of the panel, which is pretty cool. The surface is very tough -- you'd have to cut it with a razor blade or something to damage the printing underneath. After futzing around with DecalPro dry transfer decals (which are hit and miss in transfer quality, a pain in the ass to make, and not durable at all without varnish), this is like a godsend. For the first time since I started synth DIY, I'm actually looking forward to making panels! If you, like me, have been hesitant to try this technique, then let me reassure you that it is painless and the results are fantastic.

A few words about the panel itself: Obviously, my panel style is somewhat minimalist. It was inspired by Thomas White, who graciously shared all of his FPD files with me about a year ago. This panel is for a preamp/envelope follower which is essentially a clone of the Doepfer A119. The corner mounting holes are 5/32", the pot and LED holes are 5/16", and the jack holes are 3/8". There are no toggle switch holes here, but if there were, they would be 1/4". If you look closely, you can see that a couple of the holes are a tiny bit off centre. This is because I was a little off with my centre punch.

Tonight I'm going to try labelling a couple of bigger panels which I've already drilled (one is 3U and one is 4U), and which currently have paper labels stuck on. I'm going to cut little crosses in each hole after I print the Lazertran, in the hopes that the flaps of film will coat the inner surface of each hole. I'll let y'all know how it turns out tomorrow. I'll also post a picture of this module when I've got it all finished. Stay tuned!"