FISHERS (project pt.8)

 -ASSEMBLING PARTS/FINISH:

The faceplates I use are made from 3mm colored acrylic sheets that I buy from a local plastics store in Portland, Tap Plastics. It is a pretty cool store, and they sell scrap acrylic pieces by the pound, which is awesome! Sometimes I find unique colors in the scrap pile, but usually I just have custom sheets cut to order so that I have a variety of colors to choose from at the ready. When I started this project, the original plan was to use red faceplates. By the time I was ready to cut them out, I had kind of changed my mind, and wanted to imagine what some other colors might go good with the black and off-white enclosure of the original keyboard. I think most colors would have worked fine, but I ended up going back to my first choice since red was already stuck in my mind.  

Ol' Betsy

I designed the faceplates in CorelDraw in three vector layers–the engraving layer, inner cutting layer, and the outer cutting layer–then exported them to my archaic laser cutter software. I use a 4th generation Full Spectrum laser, which is really just a souped-up K40 laser from china. The company got started by buying junk lasers, and adding just enough quality improvements to resell the cutters for a massive profit. They no longer sell or support their old proprietary hardware(or even acknowledge its existence), but as long as mine is still working after all these years, I am going to use it till it dies. 

When cutting the faceplates, I set the engrave layer to about 2-3% power so that the laser only cuts the plastic about 0.2mm deep–or just deep enough to catch my fingernail. any deeper would probably compromise the plastic and would take more time to fill with paint. When I add the acrylic paint to the engraved lines, it will tend to shrink when it dries–creating air-pockets, so if the engraved lines are too deep, I have to go back over them more often. I press the acrylic paint in using a silicone shaping brush, and there is usually a lot of excess paint smeared all over the work. Once it is dry, I use an old worn out  medium-grit sanding sponge to remove the bulk of the excess paint. Then I use a fine grit sanding sponge to finish it and give the surface of the faceplates a buffed matte finish. This process creates a lot of fine dust, so using respiratory protection, gloves, and my HEPA vacuum is critical. Having microfiber towels are good at picking up what the vacuum can't, and they are good for polishing the plastic when it is done. The plastic tends to pick up fingerprints pretty easily, so I use a tiny amount of mineral oil to condition the newly buffed surface to help polish the surfaces. After all of that, I use an Exacto-knife to shave any excess paint out of any visible edges holes or edges–then countersink all of the screw holes if need be. 

Plastic bender

For bent pieces, I use my home-made hot-wire plastic bender that I made years ago out of a 12VAC transformer, a light dimmer, and some nichrome wire. Having bent panels really adds a lot of extra charm and dimension to the design, and I try to add bent faceplates whenever I can. Essentially the Plastic is placed above a hot wire that heats up only a thin strip of the plastic, making it flexible until it cools. I designed my bender to have a hinged table that I could fold the plastic with, but it is really not necessary since it is best to bend the plastic to the actual piece that it will be mounted to, and let it cool in place. The heated area of the plastic is actually pretty wide, so when the plastic is flexible, it is pretty forgiving if the angles are not perfect. 

Mounting the faceplates is pretty straight forward, but I always take the time and attention to triple-check the placement and symmetry of the positioning of the faceplates. It is more important that the alignment looks square, as opposed to actually being square. I use self-tapping M2 screws to attach the faceplates to the enclosure, which can tent to pull the faceplates out of alignment slightly if the pilot-holes are not straight, so it is good to be rechecking every angle after every screw is set, before everything is permanently locked-down into place.

The rear faceplate was made from a thinner sheet of black acrylic that I engraved and bent over the top-back side. The thinner plastic is more prone to breaking over time, but I wouldn't have been able to bend such a narrow piece if it were 3mm thick without some warping in the graphics. I think it should be OK, though. The plate is flush against the enclosure for support, and the fold probably adds strength. For the CV jacks to be able to reach the rear faceplate, I had to cut holes in the enclosure to allow the jack-bodies to fit through. This I did later on in the project, as well as cutting out the cavity for the speaker. I waited until the bent panels were ready, and measured where to cut the new cavities in the enclosure based on the faceplate's positioning. It is better to do it this way because it can be hard to tell where holes will actually land on a bent plane until the outer piece is actually bent. Cutting the cavities prior to bending the plastic could lead to having to cut out more material, or having a hole that goes beyond the edge of the faceplate, leaving the cavity exposed, which can be very hard to cover up. Thankfully, everything came out nice and clean, and with the exception of having to grind down the enclosure's original screw-posts, all of my extra measuring and planning paid off.

Video coming soon...