PDP-8 panels

[Rod Smallwood]

Hi Bill
            Thank you for the kind words.
What you have is Version 3. Version 1 shipped in limited quantities.
Version 2 never shipped because Chessie (My silk screen expert) and
I did not like what happend when we put matt black on the front.

I had to sit down and think about that one.
I have a real 8/m panel (Loaned by a kind list member)
Being as old as it was it was scratched in a few places.
I noticed that although it was not matt black on the front there was a 
coating of some sort.
So we ordered some translucent ink. The result was awful.
It was good for covering the lamp holes on the back though.

Then something in my somewhat senior brain
(I started with papertape and punched cards)
Reminded me that you can get perspex with surface finishes.
So I get on the phone to my  panel supplier and she sends me down some 
samples.

One looks good so off down to the silk screen shop.
We put the normal semi gloss on the back and stuck it in the drier.
Then mins later Chessie fishes it out of the drier and says something 
very unladylike,
Followed by It looks matt on the front. It really does!!

After that it was back to the normal six step screen - dry - screen process.
Why did the translucent ink not work? They don't make the right one anymore
because as we found out you can get etched silk finish perspex!!!

I always confuse 8/i and 8/L. Which one did you want?
I know Oscar and I'm sure he said he had no problem
with me doing full size panels as he only did the cut down version.

I'm now going to build for stock (8/e, 8/f and 8/m)
We have custom packaging so we can ship pre-packed same day.

Regards

Rod (Panelman) Smallwood


with me making full size panels

On 25/03/2016 08:28, William Maddox wrote:
> I received one of the new panels from Rob, and it is nearly indistinguishable from the original.  It captures the matte finish of the original exactly.  Fantastic!
>
>> _PDP-8 New Products under consideration _
>>
>> 1. Front panels for any of the other PDP-8 models, Including the
>> Straight 8 but excluding PDP-8A.
> I'd like to cast a vote for the PDP8/I.   I have a machine with a completely trashed panel, where the clear-coat has become crinkly, cracked, and dark.
>
> I suspect there may be a market for these panels for simulator-backed front panel reproductions.   Oscar Vermuelen's excellent PiDP-8 uses a reduced-size PDP8/I panel, but a full-sized replica would be even nicer.  The PDP8/I has the most beautiful and complete panel of any of the 8s, perhaps of any minicomputer.
>
> --Bill
>
>
>