Engraved Plates

[Bob Belter]

Ahoy, Busguys,

For those of you who need engraved plates to identify switches and other things, I found a good scource over in Salinas CA.  I had a 6" x 12" plate done in black plastic with a white substrate.  Price was reasonable at ~~ $36.00.  I did the art work in AutoCad, but they can handle a variety of different formats.  If they do the art work, I expect it would be more $$$.

Apex Signs and Graphics
Phone  831 757 7377
nicole@apexsigns.net

Enjoy/s/Bob

[JackConrad]

Can you post a photo of it?  Jack

[gumpy]

I saw a new type of vending machine the other day that engraves dog tags on the spot for about $5. They also have some other designs of small plates they can engrave on, which you can choose. I didn't look at it too close, but your post piqued my interest and now I'm wondering if there's anything in there that can be used for switches. Might be kind of expensive in the long run, though, if you have a lot to label.

[Ace]

Most any if not all trophy shops can do the plastic engraving. I have seen plaques done with the engraved faceplate that would be much larger than what we would ever need so I know it's possible. Also they have multiple colors to choose from!

Ace

[JackConrad]

I saw some samples several years ago at a boat show. The plastic used to make these had a translucent base plastic in red, green, blue, yellow, or clear. Top layer was opaque in different colors or wood grains. The top layer was removed when the lettering was cut in. The panel was then backlit after installation, giving a real nice nighttime look. I think the vendor was Ward Marine Eletronics (or Electric) in ft. Lauderdale, Fl.  Jack

[DrivingMissLazy]

Jack, I think it is Ward's Marine in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

When I was in this business I had a similar engraving machine and the nice thing about it was that I could reverse engrave. The engraving was on the back side of the plastic. Reversed, of course, so that from the smooth side it read correctly.

The nice thing about this is that we could, for example, spray the back side of the plastic black. After the paint dried, we would then engrave it. We would then, for example, spray the engraving white.  We now had a black panel with white lettering. We could also make some of the lettering white, and some Red or any other color. We could do anything the customer wanted, as long as we could put in Auto Cad, which gave us an almost unlimited variety or selection. A boat outline at the top of the panel was fairly common.

The front was smooth and was easily cleaned without any dirt catchers in the front. I suspect it would be relatively easy to back light this with LEDs, which were not available when I was in the business.
Richard 

I saw some samples several years ago at a boat show. The plastic used to make these had a translucent base plastic in red, green, blue, yellow, or clear. Top layer was opaque in different colors or wood grains. The top layer was removed when the lettering was cut in. The panel was then backlit after installation, giving a real nice nighttime look. I think the vendor was Ward Marine Eletronics (or Electric) in ft. Lauderdale, Fl.  Jack