Need Help Reproduction Glass/Acrylic panel - how to reproduce

[neevo]

Hello everyone. I am an a long journey to refurbish an old 1960 McIntosh Tube Preamp. This item was far beyond saving and I am a long way in to a complete rebuild (happy to share pics if interested).

I have had to fabricate a number of different parts as the model is no longer supported and reproduction pieces are not available (for the most part). 1 specific item is the glass front panel which was half missing on my machine. I did buy a repro panel and it’s brilliant quality, but does not fit my exact model.

I have spent hours and a fair chunk of money to reproduce the artwork which I have ready to go, but unfortunately I just cannot get a printer to reproduce the panels as I need.

The design:

My production plan: print the black and white text. Leave everything else see through. I plan on gilding the gold with gold leaf afterwards.

Currently done CMYK digital print on acrylic and glass panels and whilst the print has been brilliant, there are 2 key issues which I need to resolve:

1. The black that was printed is not black. It’s grainy and grey in areas and I need a solid black.
2. The black is supposed to 100% block light whereas the white is supposed to allow the text to be back lit. The supplier cannot get the black to block much light at all.

This is the original glass:

This is the reproduction (test panel from that run):

I am really struggling to find anyone in Sydney to help me. I have tried acrylic printers and spoke to a sublimation printer today (only does fabric) who recommended a printer that does film printing on to glass. I am a bit lost on how to make this and who I can search out to help me with the production.

Anyone here can give me some direction?

 

[Boudica]

Have the panel (s) CNC cut. Print on vinyl and mount, or find a local printer with a UV flatbed. (Short answer).

 

[ColorCrest]

Anyone here can give me some direction?

Inquire with your local industrial design students or experts. They should have access to desktop "decal" printers which are used for their projects, prototypes, etc. The printer uses special films and foils which is what you're looking for as a 1-off need.

What loud speakers do you plan to use for the amp?

 

[neevo]

The reproduction part looks to be printed not a vinyl decal. Is that possible? Am I not understanding the processes?

 

[Boudica]

The reproduction part looks to be printed not a vinyl decal. Is that possible? Am I not understanding the processes?

Any UV flatbed printer can print this. If you're using something clear, it could be a reverse print, either way with a direct print on a clear substrate, you'll need white capabilities.

 

[neevo]

Any UV flatbed printer can print this. If you're using something clear, it could be a reverse print, either way with a direct print on a clear substrate, you'll need white capabilities.

Does that also include making it block light? The reproduction piece I have seems to have a very hard textured layer printed reverse on the inside of the glass:

With UV printing is the white and black a bespoke colour in the machine or is it a CMYK (or equivalent) mix?

 

[Boudica]

White capabilities. A printer that has the ability to print white ink. In addition to CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta. I operate a printer that has This capability. In this case, I would do three layers. First surface: white, Black, color (artwork). (Black layer To ensure opacity from the behind lights)

 

[Boudica]

have seems to have a very hard textured layer printed reverse on the inside of the glass:

There are textured poly carb laminates that could achieve this.
Question... Are you trying to make new plates for an old amp, or strictly trying to authentically replicate something?

 

[ikarasu]

Look for someone that does screen printing if you want smooth / non grainy prints.

Have them do black > white > black. It'll be 100% opaque, way better than UV / latex.


That's likely how it was printed before - sadly there aren't many screenprinting shops out there these days.


We do a lot of panels for airplanes this way - it lasts forever, and gives the smoothest and most opaque results.

For a single panel though, you're probably looking at $100ish just for the setup...plus all the other pricing involved. So you need to decide if authentic look at like $2-400 is worth it to you vs going down the UV route.

 

[neevo]

There are textured poly carb laminates that could achieve this.
Question... Are you trying to make new plates for an old amp, or strictly trying to authentically replicate something?

Really good question. I do not care about the process, all I want is a high quality print that is visible through the glass/acrylic, with a genuine black that doesn’t allow light bleed through and a white that does.

I have been happy with the print quality so far with the digital print I had done, but the black was grey and didn’t block much light.

 

[neevo]

Look for someone that does screen printing if you want smooth / non grainy prints.

Have them do black > white > black. It'll be 100% opaque, way better than UV / latex.


That's likely how it was printed before - sadly there aren't many screenprinting shops out there these days.


We do a lot of panels for airplanes this way - it lasts forever, and gives the smoothest and most opaque results.

For a single panel though, you're probably looking at $100ish just for the setup...plus all the other pricing involved. So you need to decide if authentic look at like $2-400 is worth it to you vs going down the UV route.

I am prepared to pay for the quality. If my options are no glass panel, or a $400 one, then it will be a $400 one.

Can screen printing accomodate the small text I have? Some of the lines are 1mm thick for the white text.

 

[ikarasu]

Yes. We print super small stuff all the time.

A lot of printers don't like it because after 2-3 prints the small text gets washed out from ink deposits and you have to clean the screen.

But doing a one off, any printer should be able to do it easily. Look around for a local printer, bring in your current piece and tell them you have the artwork and ask them about screen printing - most shops hate one offs, but a lot of shops are slow these days so they may be open to it.

 

[Adam Vreeke]

We do this stuff all the time, I run digital prints on glass / crylic / polycarb on my mimaki flatbed. And coworker does screen printing on the same. We do alot of airplane parts and reproduce old pinball / arcade glass.

Ikarasu is dead on accurate. When backlighting any of these you need to do CMYK / WHITE / CMYK. You need the 2nd layer of CMYK to make sure that the ink is opaque enough that light isn't showing through.

 

[brdesign]

Does that also include making it block light? The reproduction piece I have seems to have a very hard textured layer printed reverse on the inside of the glass:

With UV printing is the white and black a bespoke colour in the machine or is it a CMYK (or equivalent) mix?

For the background are you using just 100% black or have you tried using a rich black like C:20 M:20 Y:20 K:100. Does the printer have the option to print a double pass on the black layer to make it more opaque?

 

[neevo]

The company that did the print said their machine was set to print black. I got some advice from someone else and requested a 3 layer print but they said what I got was as good as they could do… maybe they didn’t want to try different setups, but they have been quite good with me generally.

I asked if they could do:

100 K, 30 CMY
100 white
100 K, 30 CMY

But they said not possible to improve the finish and advised I try sublimation printing instead.

 

[rossmosh]

Take a piece of acrylic or glass and spray paint it. Does it block out the light enough? If it does, I'd do the following:

Laser cut the acrylic. Direct print the orange text. Spray paint the panel with a number of coats. Then laser engrave the text.

Can't swear it will work, but it should.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Look for someone that does screen printing if you want smooth / non grainy prints.

Have them do black > white > black. It'll be 100% opaque, way better than UV / latex.


That's likely how it was printed before - sadly there aren't many screenprinting shops out there these days.


We do a lot of panels for airplanes this way - it lasts forever, and gives the smoothest and most opaque results.

For a single panel though, you're probably looking at $100ish just for the setup...plus all the other pricing involved. So you need to decide if authentic look at like $2-400 is worth it to you vs going down the UV route.

Nobody is gonna be bothered with this let alone setup a screen for 1 part. Guy needs to get a decal with a textured laminate and call it good enough.

 

[neevo]

Nobody is gonna be bothered with this let alone setup a screen for 1 part. Guy needs to get a decal with a textured laminate and call it good enough.

Yeah I think that’s the problem I am running in to at the moment. The effort vs profit margin equation is clearly not in my favour.

 

[Browner]

Does it need to have the textured laminate? Either way, we’d do this on our Gerber Edge.

If you didn’t need/want the textured feel to it, we would just reverse print onto clear vinyl, and you could stick that to your piece of glass - or acrylic - or whatever. Or We would cut the acrylic with a laser and mount the decal for you.

If you want the textured feel (though I can’t think of why you would), we would print it onto Lexan 8A35 for the same look and feel, than apply a laminate adhesive, and you’d mount that whole thing to your piece of clear. Only downside to the Lexan is its cost.

 

[ikarasu]

Nobody is gonna be bothered with this let alone setup a screen for 1 part. Guy needs to get a decal with a textured laminate and call it good enough.

We do lots of 1 ups for screens.

Sure, we love doing 1000, or 300,000 prints... But if the customer needs it and is willing to pay for the screen setup cost, well still do it.

Especially for the air industry - they don't stock parts... So we get a box of 5-10 items, some being 3" in size that they require us to screenprint. We could easily flatbed them... But they end up paying $2-300 per print just to get it screened. We've even told them it'll cost just as much to print 10 as it does 1... But they only want one at a time.

And depending on the shop... It's not much more work to print something so rectangular. We have screens that go up to 5x10 - throwing this on the tail end of a 4x8 screen and just blocking it out until you print it, or fitting it with a smaller print doesn't cost you much of anything.. and you still get a decent proffit off of it.

It's not economical to do a single screen print.. but if you're willing to pay, I'm sure some shops will do it. Most have a minimum price.. .so long as you pay that price.