recent projects

[Kev Williams]

Couple of recent custom jobs I just did--

First is this 1968 Fender Bandmaster guitar amp that a friend is refurbishing for HIS friend.
My job was to fab a new faceplate for the controls. No lasers were harmed in the fabrication
of this panel, this is all machine tools ;) --I took the knobs off before the pics...
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Rather than completely disassemble the whole thing, we decided a simple overlay would work fine.
My friend had a new faceplate, which I scanned to use as a master template. I had to scan it and
piece it together in 3 sections. From there I traced the borders, holes, and found a matching font,
then just superimposed it all on the scans, them moved them afterwards...
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For a first draft, I cut an overlay out of a used postage box. Fit quite well from the get-go, but
of course it did need a few adjustments.
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Then it was on to the aluminum. I made this out of .020" thick 6061, pretty thin-- First up
was engraving the text, outlines and logo. It was personalized, so I've redacted the name...well, sometimes... ;)

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Then onto the cutting...

[Kev Williams]

I stenciled the perimeter in a few
places to keep it together. Afterward I snipped and sanded the stencil
bars smooth, turned out pretty good!
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Then came a test fit.
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I had to trim a few holes--that's where the .020"
thin stuff came in handy, was real easy to fix the holes with just a
deburring tool. After it fit I scotchbrighted it, then off to 'the paint booth'
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These pics don't do it justice, bad lighting in this basement... and good
eyes will note I missed "BASS" on one of the knobs, it's since been fixed!
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Once it's all finished up I'll be getting more pics...

(and I notice sometimes these aren't showing up, I'm not sure why?)

[Kev Williams]

That was a couple of weeks ago, yesterday I finished up a new gauge panel for a houseboat.

To size it I just used good ol' scaled paper, printed and taped a bunch together, then
traced all the existing holes and the outline.
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Then off to Corel with actual hole sizes & all. The panel is essentially per the
original, but with a couple of hole changes, and I made it more symmetrical.
I had a piece of .100" thick 6061 made the right size. My machine isn't big
enough for a one-shot so I did the arc in 2 setups obviously. Much to the
credit of my machine, the two points at the top of the arc where they met
matched up perfect.
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Same thing for cutting the holes, I did all that would fit in one pass,
flipped it and finshed it...
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The new and the original....
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Then off to the anodizing shop...

Fortunately the Triumph is plenty big enough to run this
off in one shot! :)
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and the finished product...
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-- I love doing one-off stuff, it's cool to make unique things! :)

[Mike Null]

Very impressive work, Kev. Thanks for posting.

[Keith Winter]

Wow Kev I'm very impressed!

[Matt McCoy]

Good stuff, Kev.

[Kev Williams]

And one more, if I may-- :)

One of my long-time customers builds and rebuilds ships clocks. For years I've duplicated,
to the best of my ability, name tags and ID plates for these clocks and their boxes. He recently
brought to me one of these clocks, a 1941 Naval Observatory clock, with the original factory engraving.
I took pics of the back of it, plus I was supplied with pics of 2 other similar clocks for reference.
He is rebuilding a 1957 version of the clock (based on the serial number) for a customer, which is
getting a new back plate. My job was to faithfully reproduce the factory engraving of his customer's
original clock.

The first pic is the back of the clock my customer brought, the second pic is the new back plate
I engraved and painted. My stroke width is about .0015" wider than in this picture, but is in line with
the engraving on the other clocks in the reference pics. The hardest part was figuring out how and
where to align the text on the part! Second hardest part was HOLDING the thing... ;)

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/clock1.jpg
http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/clock2.jpg

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[John Blazy]

I can definitely relate to how fun projects like this can be - the challenge to duplicate, and even end up with something better than the original. Nice work!