Quick way to make a panel

I know the color fill is not good enough for a customer but it was quick to make and gets the job done for internal purposes. This little control panel is a PCB sandwiched between 2 layers of acrylic with standoffs keeping it all together. The color fill is just the protective paper coating that was laser cut in place using a low setting, weeded, spray painted, and weeded again. Aside from time, this probably costs less than a dollar. Oh, and the perimeter of holes on the back plate is because I'm not sure how I'm attaching until at the site.


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Thats an awesome trick, that I too have done for speed. The only issue could be the solvent in the spray paint causing crazing when contacting the fine laser line, but with low enough settings and cast not extruded acrylic, it works, leaving a sharp line. Then the issue is adhesion of the paint to the acrylic. I usually mix methylene chloride (solvent cement) into the paint for chemical adhesion.

Looks great! Just throwing this out there ... could you have used a sheet of black/white plastic and engraved it, or did you need the thickness of the 2 layers of acrylic to accomplish the end result you were looking for?

I could have used black/white plastic but since engraving is not what I do for a living, I didn't have any floating around. Acrylic on the other hand...

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Originally Posted by John Blazy

Thats an awesome trick, that I too have done for speed. The only issue could be the solvent in the spray paint causing crazing when contacting the fine laser line, but with low enough settings and cast not extruded acrylic, it works, leaving a sharp line. Then the issue is adhesion of the paint to the acrylic. I usually mix methylene chloride (solvent cement) into the paint for chemical adhesion.

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I used a Cardinal lacquer based aerosol paint that bites well and hasn't given me any problems in the past. I've also used Krylon Fusion which did what it needed to do. Oh, I lay down a few light, dusty layers prior to the finish coat.