Re: Re:poor man's decal

On 4/3/2025 4:36 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

Hot laminated will stand up to a lot of abuse provided that you don't punch any holes through it (might be an issue on a front panel). If you glue only and the seal is good then totally weatherproof.

None of these are exposed to weather.  There may be some "moisture"
present if someone opts to "wipe clean" with a wet towel/sponge.
But, the fact that you DON'T need a perforation to gain value from
the decal works in your favor; e.g., no need to install jewels for
every indicator that perforates the panel!  Just cut an opening in
the PRINTED portion encased in the mylar.
This is also a win for haptics where a regular panel would pose
additional mounting problems.

Staple it through the paper and water ingress will be a big problem. You could punch the holes out oversize in the paper and then cut only laminated plastic to plastic (or print onto laser printer plastic).

Or, use "dry lamination".

Avery OL-1000?
Cheers

 +1
 You can buy waterproof laserprinable clear and white self adhesive plastic material from Avery or (other vendors). A4 is easily available.
 You might have to piece it up from 2x A4 though as I expect A3 will be extrortionate and an A3 colour laser printer even more so!

And then you either have to overlap the pieces or leave a seam through
which moisture can wick.  In each case, a visible artifact.  (and,
more likely to be exposed to moisture during a wipe cleaning as
that seam would undoubtedly not be confined to areas around
perforative obstructions -- like knobs)

Some shop sign production folk might be able to do you a special deal if you wanted enough to meet their minimum quantity requirements and provided them with the self made artwork in exactly the right format.

Originally thought of very thin lexan.  But, realized that offered
very little advantage over the laminating film.
The funky aspect of the lamination approach is the surface feels
"soft"/pliable instead of hard/rigid like under lexan.  But, it's
only something that a user MIGHT observe and wouldn't alter his
interactions with it.

That is how signs for one of my hobbies get done as foreigner jobs at a sign manufacturers using what would otherwise be waste offcuts.

I still have to see how large my approach will accommodate.  Next
one is 22x17 -- and there are still larger ones after that.  (I
think the dry laminating process will save me, there)