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New RAF style dial creation

toptime810
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rodabod Distinguished Member

rodabod

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I presume it uses a digital printer somewhere along the lines as there is stair-casing on the curves such as the number “6”. Still looks very good to me. 
 

By the way, “W10” is an Army designation. It would be “6B” or latterly “6BB” to denote flying equipment. 

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eezy WRT Addict

eezy

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I've seen some fantastic artwork done on custom motorbikes during my time with clubs. It gives the impression it is airbrushed by an artist when in actual fact it is done by transferring a print image off paper.

You print a mirror image on paper and then apply a transfer gel medium to the metal surface. You then apply the paper to the gelled area ink side down and leave it to dry. The next step is to soak the paper and rub it off with your thumb like removing a sticky label residue from a tincan.

Two issues to deal with as I see it. 1),Could you print a suitable 'skeleton' image (e.g. 'chapter' or 'railtrack' only) and 2), I'm guessing you will end up with a matt finish although maybe gloss lacquer will solve that.

The other thing is, to my knowledge, you cannot recreate a metallic colour with a printer such as silver or gold. Hence you end up with solid colours as per the OP's photos.

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JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

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7 minutes ago, toptime810 said:

Dials not for sale

That's good that they're not for sale because had you've offered to sell me a dial  I would've reported this discussion to Mark as you would be in violation of the message board rules. There's a section in the rules titled "Advertising, self promotion and posting links."

As someone else pointed out were an open discussion group we share ideas and knowledge. You asked for our help you need our feedback and you don't want to share other than look what I did isn't it nifty. Just my personal view that doesn't seem like you're embracing why this group is in existence.

 

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AndyHull Distinguished Member

AndyHull

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Posted (edited)

I'm intrigued, and even though toptime810 is a little cagey about his methods, that wont stop me from speculating.

Ignore the fact that the video in the link below uses a lot of expansive hardware, the basic idea that I would like to explore is the thermal transfer films. Ignore the fact that youtube embedding is currently not working, I'm sure that will be fixed soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMr8uFlsvtU

This is one of a bunch of techniques I would be keen to apply. Thermal transfer films allow the use of titanium whites, metallics and a bunch of other stuff that would be pretty difficult to do any other way. You can also get some small rolls of thermal films from ebay, and application could be with something as simple as a clothes iron or a pouch laminating machine.

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eezy WRT Addict

eezy

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1 hour ago, AndyHull said:

I'm intrigued, and even though toptime810 is a little cagey about his methods, that wont stop me from speculating.

Ignore the fact that the video in the link below uses a lot of expansive hardware, the basic idea that I would like to explore is the thermal transfer films. Ignore the fact that youtube embedding is currently not working, I'm sure that will be fixed soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMr8uFlsvtU

This is one of a bunch of techniques I would be keen to apply. Thermal transfer films allow the use of titanium whites, metallics and a bunch of other stuff that would be pretty difficult to do any other way. You can also get some small rolls of thermal films from ebay, and application could be with something as simple as a clothes iron or a pouch laminating machine.

Andy

How much would your idea add to the thickness of the dial, would you still be able to fit the hands ok?

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AndyHull Distinguished Member

AndyHull

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10 hours ago, eezy said:

How much would your idea add to the thickness of the dial, would you still be able to fit the hands ok?

The thickness wont be much I suspect.

The way the films I looked at typically work is by adhering to toner, so you print, or transfer your laser or copier toner design on to the brass or whatever your substrate is, then you put the foil on top of  the metal substrate, pass it through your heat source, and the foil bonds to the toner (which melts and becomes tacky due to the heat, as heat bonded toners are designed to do). This changes your black toner design to gold, white, metallic, holographic, or whatever your film produces.

This means that the layer is likely to be a few hundredths, or even thousandths of a mm or so. The actual thickness will depend on the density of the toner, and the thickness of the bonded layer from the film, but we are talking pretty thin.

Here is an academic paper on toner thickness which gave me the ball park figure for the base toner layer. It talks in terms of μm or micrometers (thousands of a mm or 10^-6 meters if you prefer).

https://www.imaging.org/site/PDFS/Papers/1997/RP-0-68/2318.pdf

Search for information on "laser transfer foils" and "hot stamping foils" if you want to learn more about the idea.

 

Edited by AndyHull
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toptime810 WRT Addict

toptime810

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The hardest part of this 20 step process is drilling the chrono hand holes with precision without out $20,000 equipment. Then comes the lume and casing process. Everything has to be precise or it will not work. I had to make 30 dials just to get two that are perfect enough to work for the case and movement.

20200922_101316.jpg

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AndyHull Distinguished Member

AndyHull

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You might get some use out of a small cross slide, it would allow precise and repeatable alignment.

image.thumb.png.c78608c051fb1ecd065fc2ddafb18fee.png

Search ebay/ali for something like 32mm Metal Cross Slide Block. Expect to pay around $20 to $30 for something cheap from China, which would probably be good enough.

Couple that with a pre-drilled clear plastic alignment drilling template, and a base plate to hold your blanks precisely and you should be able to get repeatable results.

You might need two for complete x/y control. Mount one on the other, and bolt the lot to your drill stand.

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