Milling parts

To create the illuminated text of the annunciator, I've painted one side of a piece of lexan and then milled the text into the paint.  behind the lexan will be a piece of material to keep the individual LEDs from illuminating their neighboring indicators and then a PCB where the LEDs will be mounted.  behind that I'll somehow attach the rest of the circuit in a sensible way.

Here's the design of the front panel, LED locations and the light fence:

From that I created some toolpaths with Vectric's excellent Cut2D software.  Cut2D also lets you preview the piece being milled.  The side that is being milled is the side with the black paint on it, hence the backwards lettering.  The holes on the side will be used to attach the circuit board as well as attach the annunciator to the panel, once that's built.

Here's the light fence after milling into 1/4" pine:

After painting the lexan I let it dry overnight and milled it the next evening. I wasn't able to secure it to my table as well as I would have liked so mid way through the end mill got to close to the edge of the material and started freaking out. I need to head to rockler and buy some 1/4" tie down thing-a-majigs. In any case, it didn't turn out too bad. I can use this piece for testing.

As you can see, it didn't turn out that bad.  There is quite a bit of chipping from the paint as you can see in this closeup of the back

BUT, it's not that bad.  The paint can says you get full chip resistance after 7 days so I think I'll try again then.  I have an 8 x 6" sheet that I painted.  I may also try painting more layers on another sheet since a bit of light still shines through.  I'm pretty pleased by the initial results though.

Next up, I'll work on the PCB that the LEDs will mount to.