I wanted a panel for an electronic project I'd built, in the past I used letterset, rub on dry letters, even when protected by a coat of lacquer, they either don't look right or soon flake away, they sure do look odd when the letterings a 'midgets whisker' out surprising how the eye soon picks that out.

Thought I'd try an inkjet printer and coloured card, after printing, I trimmed the card to suit, in my case I wanted a cut out slot for the LCD display… then I laminated it and trimmed again, I left the lamination in place over the cut out slot… looks brill, to me anyway!!!

I did use a PCB cad program for this but any program will do, easier if there's a measuring tool that can measure millimetres.

I had no luck sticking the panel with super glue mind you, didn't roughen the aluminium up… laying as much double sided sticky tape as you can to cover the area, this is the type that comes with a white backing tape and being thinner than normal Selloptape stuff…. and rather sticky to add, this worked a treat.

I do have a lable maker machine but the letterings and width are usually too clumsy.

I thought I'd give it a mention incase anyone wanted a badge or panel!

Dave

Edited By Sparks on 10/04/2012 10:15:50

Edited By Sparks on 10/04/2012 10:16:31

Press and Peel…. I use it for etching copper, but as you hinted it can be used for screen printing such as panels etc.

For PCBs I use Labcentres Proteus CAD, the link you gave looks very interesting, I'll give it a try sometime, I've bookedmarked it for now, thanks.

Dave