decals

[Gordon]

Has anyone tried to make a clear decal to fit on the outside face of a dial indicator? In many cases where I am using a dial indicator I want it to read in reverse such as reading the infeed of the lathe crossfeed. I can move to 65 when I want to advance 35 but it is confusing. I occurred to me that it could be possible to put a clear decal on the outside of the indicator. Clear decal paper is available for an inkjet printer and it should be possible to make a CAD drawing and print up several of them on a single sheet so that they could be replaced periodically if necessary.

 

[canadianhorsepower]

Clear decal paper is available for an inkjet printer and it should be possible to make a CAD drawing and print up several of them on a single sheet so that they could be replaced periodically if necessary.

I think it would be easier with opaque decal
this way you would only see 1 set of numbers and not 2

 

[Gordon]

With a clear decal it would just be placed on the outside face and you would not have disassemble the unit or cut out the center of the decal. It would seem that reverse indicators would be more available.

 

[canadianhorsepower]

With a clear decal it would just be placed on the outside face and you would not have disassemble the unit or cut out the center of the decal. It would seem that reverse indicators would be more available.

That was pretty stupid of me Rof}Rof}Rof}Rof}
of course if you don't see the numbers you don't see the needle :wall::wall:

 

[mcostello]

That's why "Plan B's " are developed.

 

[Jasonb]

The problem with putting them on teh outside is that they are not very durable and could easily get scratched off and any cutting fluid would have them become live again. There is also the probelm of parallax if you are going to adda scale rather than just numbers.

I think I would be tempted to open it up and just add a set of reverse numbers to the existing dial, a bit like the ones in this link.

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Measurement/Dial-Gauges

The decal paper works well but you will still want to cut out the middle as you don't really want the clear film over the whole glass as it will make it hard to see as it deteriorates