Replacing Faded Placards

[RN]

Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.

John

[Paul Remde]

Hi John,

I print them using Excel with white text on a black background and have them
laminated at a Kinko's of OfficeMax store. They look great and last a very
long time.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde

"RN" > wrote in message
...
> Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
> method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
> for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.
>
> John

[bildan]

On Jul 27, 5:25*am, RN > wrote:
> Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
> method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
> for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.
>
> John

If you Google "inkjet vinyl" and "inkjet aluminum" you will find
online vendors of special self-adhesive label making media. The vinyl
is sometimes used for DIY bumper stickers which have proven capable of
surviving years of car washes. The aluminum sheets have the
professional look of OEM factory labels. Of course, you'll have to
find or do your own artwork.

Bill D

[Andy[_1_]]

On Jul 27, 4:25*am, RN > wrote:
> Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
> method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
> for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.
>
> John

If the placard is depicted in the flight or maintenance handbooks it's
quite easy to make a photo copy and then laminate it. A quick
sandwich of double sided carpet tape, the paper placard copy, and
clear package tape lasts a surprisingly long time.

Andy

[Morgans[_2_]]

"RN" > wrote in message
...
> Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
> method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
> for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.

How about a sign shop, and cut vinyl letters.

You can also print onto clear vinyl iron-on's (meant for T-shirts) with most
inkjet printers, and iron them on to the panel. You have to have a program that
writes backwards, though.

Jewelry shops usually have engraving machines that can engrave into
multi-layered plastic, that has a black top thin layer, and white body, so when
the black letters are engraved away, the white shows up. If it is for an
instrument panel that is to be used at night, that can be backlit for a really
nice look.

That is three easy ideas. Any work for you?
--
Jim in NC

[Darryl Ramm]

On Jul 27, 4:25*am, RN > wrote:
> Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
> method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
> for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.
>
> John

To replace the printed vinyl type adhesive placard I scan the copies
in the POH or similar or take a photo of the orgiginal and load into
Adobe InDesign or Illustrator as a background image and then lay out a
new one on top of that. Spend far too much time tweeking them to look
exactly like the originals (with logos and illustrations) because even
if nobody else notices I will. Email off the PDF to my local FastSign
store to print on their special printer (UV stable and robust inks) on
adhesive vinyl and have them laminate a top layer over that that as
well. Lots of time wasted but $30 or so out of pocket for a letter
size sheet of placards. If you do want to use a sign store talk to
them ahead of time about what file format they prefer/can handle.

Cut vinyl lettering is not an option for small decals. The cutters
have problems cutting small lettering and there are other problems.

One of the things I've noticed that just trashes several types of
printed factory placards is suncream. Especially where you might have
suncream on your arms and it rubs on the decals. Laminating the
replacement decals is good insurance agains this even if using a
relatively robust ink.

Darryl

[sisu1a]

> Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
> method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
> for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.


http://www.engravers.net/aircraft/custom-placards.htm -cheaper than
you may think...

-Paul

[Barny]

http://www.engravers.net/aircraft/custom-placards.htm*-cheaper than
you may think...

-Paul

Thanks Paul, just what I needed for my ship. Incredible prices.
~Bruce

[SGSflyer]

On Jul 27, 6:25*am, RN > wrote:
> Looking for information and feedback from anyone who has found a good
> method or source for printing or having printed replacement placards
> for an aging glider when no longer available from the manufacturer.
>
> John

I had the same problem and tried many fixes. I finally discovered that
the local trophy shop can make placards much like what you see on
trophy stands. This turned out to be the best fix since the placards
are printed on aluminum and can be made quite small. The shop in Tulsa
charged me $10 for a small one (about 10 to 15 words and 1.5" by 1.5")
and $25 for a much larger placard that had various flight limitations
and speeds (approx 3" by 5" and 6 lines of info). The type/font was
much smaller than anything a plastic engraving shop could do and they
look great. I did bring them a hard copy of what I wanted in the
right font size, spacing, etc. which I created on MS Word. My
placrads were black lettering on silver (aluminum). I don't know if
they could do the reverse (black background with white/silver letters)
but you might want to chect on this.

Thanks - Robert