开云体育

ctrl + shift + ? for shortcuts
© 2025 开云体育
  1. TekScopes
  2. Topics

Skirt lettering for scope knobs

 

Greetings!

I need to re-letter the skirts for some of my scope knobs. Has anyone done that here?

I am thinking that black vinyl reversed letters on transfer stock would work. I found a few sites that provide that service, but I am not sure if they can deal with the small size that would be required. Not sure if a design tool is available online.

Other suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks,

Barry
 

For printed circuit board use, there's a paper/toner transfer sheet that is printed on (laser printer), laminated to the board (makes the toner melt), and then is soaked off (special coating (cornstarch?) on the paper.

It is also recommended for decals, so printing on some of it, soaking it, and using it as a transfer might help.? Never tried it, though.

Harvey

On 3/29/2025 8:16 PM, Barry Breaux wrote:
Greetings!

I need to re-letter the skirts for some of my scope knobs. Has anyone done that here?

I am thinking that black vinyl reversed letters on transfer stock would work. I found a few sites that provide that service, but I am not sure if they can deal with the small size that would be required. Not sure if a design tool is available online.

Other suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks,

Barry
 

On Mar 29, 2025, at 17:16 , Barry Breaux via groups.io <groupsio@...> wrote:

I am thinking that black vinyl reversed letters on transfer stock would work. I found a few sites that provide that service, but I am not sure if they can deal with the small size that would be required. Not sure if a design tool is available online.
In one of this books, Giovanni Becattini recommended water slide decals for push button labels, and they work great. I wonder if the same thing might work for knob skirts?

The decals are transparent, and you could lay out the entire label at one go in a drawing program. You could either draw it in reverse and apply to the inner side of the skirt, or cut a hole in the decal and apply to the outer side.

Clear polyester label (sticker) paper might work as well, but the stuff I've tried isn't as transparent as the decals.

Adam
 

Barry,
Brother label tape is available in Black on Clear, and the label makers can do reverse print. I don't know if the available fonts would be the right size. The individual tape pieces might be a bit unsightly, too.
--John Gord

On Sat, Mar 29, 2025 at 05:16 PM, Barry Breaux wrote:


Greetings!

I need to re-letter the skirts for some of my scope knobs. Has anyone done
that here?

I am thinking that black vinyl reversed letters on transfer stock would work.
I found a few sites that provide that service, but I am not sure if they can
deal with the small size that would be required. Not sure if a design tool is
available online.

Other suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks,

Barry

 

On Sun, 30 Mar 2025 at 00:17, Barry Breaux via groups.io <groupsio=
[email protected]> wrote:

I need to re-letter the skirts for some of my scope knobs. Has anyone done
that here?
...
Other suggestions are welcomed!

I needed to do that for my 475.

I used a standard word processor diagram package to draw the label. I used
"Ubuntu Condensed 7 pt bold". While creating the legend I found it useful
to add lines/circles indicating where the text ought to be, but to not
print those. Rotating the entire picture (by the relevant number of
degrees) for each setting enabled me to ensure that each setting's text was
correctly oriented.

I printed the label on a transparency; I forget whether I used an inkjet or
a laserjet on the high temperature stock; probably the former.

I then mounted the transparency behind the existing skirt to protect it,
and held it place with a dob of glue in the centre. Theoretically the
transparency could flap around, but in practice it was sufficiently stiff
for that not to be an issue.
 

I used a similar procedure as Tom, but I prinetd the image on a self adhesive transparency film.
Pay attention to print the image "mirroed".
After the film was glued to the skirt, I spayed a layer of protective varnish to minimize the chances of the image being "washed out" due to friction of the skirt and the panel.
 

Thanks for all the comments / suggestions! Keep them coming!
 

Hi,

this is how I did it.
Using Word to create a circle and put the text in.

Files can be found here:

/g/TekScopes/files/TekTronix%202235%20V-Div%20skirt%20for%20Transparent%20film.zip


Leo
 

Leo,

Nice documentation, thanks!

It looks like you replaced the skirt. I was actually trying to get the letters on the original acrylic skirt. I wonder if this method would look as good under the original skirt. I thought about that as an option.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Barry
 

Hi Barry,

sorry, I should have mentioned in my case the skirts were broken, that's why I made new ones like this.

I sold it, so I can not take pictures of how it looked.

Leo
 

Leo,
Your artwork looks great. Thanks for posting the Word file you created. I wasn't aware that Word could be used to place the numeral around the circular skirt in that rotational manner. If you can explain a little about the process to do that with Word, I'd really appreciate learning about that.
Cheers,
Tom
 

Powerpoint might be a better alternative. It lets you place text at whatever angle you like with whatever font you have installed on your computer.

I recently constructed the graphics for the meter in my Hickok 752A and used Python and the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) library to produce the lines, arcs, text, etc. The resulting file can be taken into Inkscape and then output to a file format compatible with Powerpoint. From there, it can printed on whatever media you like. I chose to produce a laser-printed water-slide decal. Kind of a long route to take to get there but it was worth it as trying to recreate all those tiny lines at the correct angle, size, position, etc., would be extremely tedious. The meter looks very nice and the scales are accurate as well.

Barry - N4BUQ

Leo,
Your artwork looks great. Thanks for posting the Word file you created. I wasn't
aware that Word could be used to place the numeral around the circular skirt in
that rotational manner. If you can explain a little about the process to do
that with Word, I'd really appreciate learning about that.
Cheers,
Tom
 

Made some progress… I finished the artwork for the SC504 knobs. I am going to have some dry transfers made professionally. Or . Drytransfers.com will do 4”x6” film for $70. Squeeze as many on the 4x6 as you can.

Send-cut-send.com can laser cut the skirts if you need to replace those.

I am also going to do the art work for the SC502 and SC503 and have those printed too.

I let you’ll know how it comes out.
 

Hi Tom,

Don't really remember how I did ut.

I followed a YouTube video where somebody demonstrated how to make round banners in Word, and took it from there.

Sorry,

Leo

1 - 14 of 14