The $2 Backlit Button Panel: Simple Method For Flight Sims and More
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Need to backlit a button box, instrument panel or artwork? Here's an inexpensive method for making crisp backlit panels using a home laser printer, that look like they've come straight out of a professional lightbox. Recommended Glue: amzn.to/367mlay
This is a simple, effective way to quickly make a full-colour flight simulator instrument panel or button box that is backlit using a home printer. It takes some careful work to get printed panel that backlights well, but this method is very low-cost, and produces crisp results limited only by the resolution of your printer.
Recommended Spray Glue (low soak-in suitable for paper): amzn.to/367mlay
Arduino Mega: amzn.to/3t3fB5F
Mini Toggle Switch: amzn.to/3uV3xFY
16mm SPST Buttons, easy Panel-Mount: amzn.to/3sEIswK
0:00 Intro
0:02 Beauty Shots
0:47 Warthog Project Laser Engraver
1:55 Initial Test Washed Out
2:04 No Backlighting with Foamcore
2:48 Materials Plexi Acryllic
3:14 Lightbox
3:55 Better Paper
4:10 Registration Black
4:47 Printing the Back-Side Mask
6:32 Spray Glue Layers
7:51 Invert and Levels
8:08 Next Steps - บันเทิง
![แข่งแลกของ 1 วัน!! ของใครแพงสุดชนะ!! [Ver.2024]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/joRT59ilPHg/mqdefault.jpg)
There is a saying that applies here: "There's a right way, and a cheap way. The right way is always perfect, but with enough skill the cheap way can be good enough."
Another method I've seen is print the normal image on paper, then print the reversed image on transparency. You then line up the two with the transparency on top and both printed surfaces touching and glue them together.
This gives you two printed layers right next to each other, so there's no "paralax", AND outer surfaces with no ink on them. You kind of "half-laminate" the print.
It's also far easier to line up as you're not trying to make the printer do it.
holy crap this is actually brilliant! I need to try this.
@@akaHarvesteR th-cam.com/video/k8ooTohtTqM/w-d-xo.html
Great idea! I would recommend doing the registration of both sides with only an *outline* rather than the full, solid black print. You'll save a LOT of toner ($) and it will line up perfectly a lot easier. I'm going to try it with 64# vellum paper rather than the thick white.
Thanks Michael, true that you can run a few tests with just an outline to save on toner, and then switch to printing full registration black once you've got it close to dialed-in.
Use two sheets of paper stuck together, a lot more efficient.
Right on! Was thinking two layers of vellum myself 👍
And probably add second layer of acrylic sheet on the top to make protect printed paper from dirt and scratch. If the button threads make it possible. If not the bottom acrylic plate should have got bigger holes to fit the nut in.
Cool idea!
...And if the trial and error printing of the flipped image on the reverse side of the paper is too much of an nuisance, perhaps just printing the second , B&W layer on a second page and stacking them would yield a good result, too.
But then first mirror the image. Otherwise it will not work.
Great approach; thanks for sharing it. I'm borrowing this method for SimRacing and building a centre console.
Everything I’ve been building in my head clicked in to place as soon as you showed the dollar store picture frames!! Thank you so much!!
Love it! What are you building?
why not just print out the other side on a second piece of paper and press fit the two pieces between the acrylic? Wouldnt that be faster and cheaper as you dont need the trial and error?
Also, its been a while since this video, is the second part going to happen soon?
Just over 2 solid years later, and it's still the last video of the channel. I really hope they weren't hit by the human malware going around...
Eric have you joined the Star Wars Room Builders Group? There's 10,000 people who would love this content.
Nice idea!
You could even go a level further. Again, literally.
If you sandwich the back-to-back printed sheet between 2 plexiglass layers, you could make the printed sheet removable, thus interchangeable.
This could work if you want to have a multipurpose button box with different functions depending on the game, or space-/aircraft.
You still need to make good and tidy cutouts on the top acrylic/plexiglass sheet and the printed sheet, though..
True! This would work especially well if you were building a panel with capacitive sensors, which will sense through the paper and acrylic and therefore require no through holes for panel mount components.
Quick heads up, when trying to get the duplex print to line up - DONT print whole thing out, just print small areas of corners etc . This will save time and printer ink.. I have got some great ideas from this to try something that might work even better than this - If i get it to work - Ill update this!
how is your project going? Excited to see an update if you have made progress!
I don't know when I will ever need to make a control panel, but I'm glad the youtube rabbit hole brought me to your video. I've been wanting to make some zero-clearance cutting guides for a few power tools and your idea to use the dollar store picture frames would be perfect! Thanks for sharing!
oh very true! For that application, I would definitely try sandwiching any guide artwork you want to print or etch inbetween two layers of the dollar store picture frames.
I was looking for some print transfer videos, but i think I've landed on a cool spaceship 😅❤ thank you bro
Thank you for acknowledging the warthog project ...I too am building a cockpit based on his designs and I must say it is fantastic. I have all the equipment ..
Put everything aside and I will say. It is an incredible amount of fun to figure it all out and to put it all together.
I only have one issue, and that is how to make the a o a indicator work on the a10c lol
I love the old washing machine panel control design style. Great idea.
Absolutely great job Eric! This is awesome for prototyping and quickly developing something that looks decent. I will be recommending your video. Thanks for posting ✌✌
Awesome results without getting a dedicated laser engraver. Subbed to see the evolution of those instruments.
Loving the idea so far. Would love to see you wiring it up. I'm definitely looking to make a budget button box so im following along.
This was a truly inspiring video, thank you for sharing! so, can’t wait to see the spaceship you’re working on!
That is fantastic!! Thank you for sharing your methodology!
Outstanding work!
Thanks! Although nowhere near as impressive as your cockpit. I've paused work on this spaceship panel while I experiment with different materials to print on. Paper really does work extremely well but I worry that it won't hold up over time since there's really no way to wipe it clean (the toner-covered areas are fine, but anything white turns to pulp). So, waiting for a sample of this: www.riteintherain.com/printer-paper-20-pound#paper-colors_white_sizes_letter_packs_200-pack#8511
@@EricFergusonCinema I actually started my project using similar paper templates before I got a laser cutter, however I never tried backlighting them. Rather than glue the paper to the plastic, I had mine sandwiched between two pieces of clear acrylic.
@@thewarthogproject That definitely seems like the best way to really protect it, and actually I see some commercial sims are doing this now at flight schools, no doubt at least in part to make it easier to wipe down between users. I really think it sacrifices some of the realism though: adding any glossy coating breaks the realism and feels like an arcade machine. I'll keep searching for a perfect material that can run through a laser printer!
Awesome, glad to see this is already shared on our buidlers group!
Awesome!!! Im about to start a simulator build and this is the route I think I'm going to take
I found my way here from the Artemis Forums and am so looking forward to the next vid in this series!
im happy some people are making tutorials in the ACTUAL life. Most of the people make tutorials for games like minecraft
Amazing!!! We will wait for the next step!!
Excellent idea and thanks for sharing
Another option for your light hiding could be to print just the gauge and buttons, cut them out, and marking them with a sharpie. Then tape over that area, put the guide back on, and cut around the edge. Now you got your gauges taped. Maybe a light sand with high grit and some matte black paint before removing the tape and applying your final print.
You are a genius! Thank you for this great inspiration!
If you can get the registration to hold tightly, and you have a sufficient uncoated stock, you could put the paper in for another pass of the back side.
Printers will limit themselves to not lay down 400% ink to allow each process to dry. 300-330% is the general limit; but your advice still stands to set the image to maximum value and make the printer limit itself as it wants.
That's fantastic! love it!
Very clever! Awesome hack.
Nice work! Looks linke someone is preparing for Artemis :D
Yes! Planning on using this method for a bunch of different projects, but the panel you're seeing here is indeed for Artemis SBS.
Great video!
GREAT stuff!!!!!!!!! Thx for sharing!!!
thx for the idea, i will definitely try it out in my current projekt
I would love to see what you build!
Thanks for this info, it's very useful. When are you going to upload the electronics portion of this project?
Nice ! I'm sad to don't have the next videos :)
Thankyou for helping us poor people. Impressive stuff, convincing enough for me and I'm picky.
@0:58 Just would like to point out he's not using a "Desktop laser engraver", he's using a air assisted Co2 cutter he picked up off ebay. So dont go out and pickup a cheap little desktop diode engraver and expect it to easily cut through acrylic or PCB's.
True that it's not one of the hobbyist diode ones, but it is indeed a pretty small unit that he's using. I believe he has a K40 which is about 20 inches deep, 30 inches wide. A Glowforge would also work, or an Xtool P2.
@@EricFergusonCinema Glowforge i would advise against. It's a extremely overpriced 40w tube. For what you would pay for a glowforge pro you could quite literally buy a 150w full sized industrial cutter.
Great tips, thank you! Are you planning on making that arduino button tutorial? I look forward to more!
Good idea.. 👍🏼🙂
Awesome!
If you hit the plexiglass with some sandpaper it will diffuse the light a bit more too. Make it not as harsh. You'll still get some bleed unless you do use paint/laser combo, but that looks decent for a quick panel set up. 👍
Could do, although in my experience you can get pretty ideal results just by carefully managing choice of paper: if it's a heavy-weight stock with a very fine texture (ie not the cheapest copy paper), you'll get great diffusion. Then it's just down to how you space out the LED backlighting to avoid hotspots. Zero bleed with the print-both-sides technique shown in this video, but it's *very* close. Even a tiny bit less black toner than what I managed to get to with this print would pretty much ruin the effect by making the black regions feel subtly backlit. You can also make it bleed by blasting an unreasonable amount of light at it (think: holding it up to the sun at noon), but any amount of LED backlighting I tested worked perfectly.
The biggest issue in the panel in this video is the shadowing from components under the panel, but that just comes down to designing the print more carefully with the physical size of the components in mind.
Have you tried printing on 0.5mm (or thinner) sheets of abs? That is much more light dense, and does well for backlighting.
Another technique to try is use a piece of (opaque) acrylic, and sandwich it between a top layer and bottom layer of the print. You might not need a bottom layer with opaque acrylic.
Really cool process! I use 1/16" aluminum to make my panels, but i LOVE the idea of backlit plexi. Can i suggest you check out Inkjet Waterslide decals? I'm not sure how smooth your color blocks would show up compared to that heavy paper.
This is a brilliant idea, i will absolutly try this for my next button box.
How about the idea to laminate the print to make the surface more durable? You could use flat laminating film for that to keep the surface flat? Ever tried this?
Amazing!
The best way (and the hardway) to make panels and gauges is using aluminium panels and use the silk screening method to print everything on the panel. It will look like the real deal. This method can be difficult and expensive but it's def worth it. I thought I just mention this although this method won't work if you need backlight panels.
WOW This is thinking outside the box at its finest. The light bulbs are going off where ever I look. The only thing I can think of is that no refreshments / Beer will be allowed near any of my cockpits lol Great stuff thanks for the video!
Haha yes that's a concern; although you can spray it with a few coats of cheap acryllic clear and that'll protect it.
You'll probably want to seal the print anyway to avoid smudges, black toner has a habit to not stick very well...
@@Dutch3DMaster I think this was an issue with some older desktop laser printers that couldn't get up to temperature, but it's much less of a problem now. The black toner surface on this print is reliably solid plastic, not powdery, doesn't smudge. Perhaps over time will break down?
@@EricFergusonCinema Not really sure if temperature was to blame honestly, the thing I have noticed is that laser printers have been getting fast at printing.
My brother used magazine paper to do toner transfers for PCB etching, and the printer from 1994 we had printed a very deep black which adhered very well to the PCB material.
When that printer went defective in 2012 we got a new one that printed a page incredibly fast (compared to the 10 seconds it took for the old one to output 1 page from the moment it started to leave the printer, the new one layed it down within a second).
My brother has problems with the amount of adhesion on the PCB material ever since we have that printer and he suspects it's the printing speed that's to blame, along with economy modes that might still be active in firmware and which you can't switch off.
That printer had serious trouble printing the transparent overhead projector sheets (in the sense that the print on it was incredibly vulnerable to even touching the print, let alone accidently scrape it with a fingernail), but a color laser printer I bought second hand has proven to be a whole lot better at it, I can rub my fingers on the sheets and even run my nails over them and the print stays on...
Hey thank you very much. Very interesting way to get good results. One thing you didn't talk about : How do you actually backlit the panel ? I mean, what do you use and how do you put it at the back of the panel ?
Hi thanks for your comment! In this video all the backlighting is simply with a cellphone flash pointed upward at the back of the panel. That's it! You could achieve similar (probably better) results with LED strip lights. They come in adhesive roll and are easy to work with: just affix them to the bottom of any case or box. Deep picture frames work well, see here using an IKEA picture frame: artemis.forumchitchat.com/post/low-cost-weapons-panel-12255047
Use black plastic and simply cut holes for where you want the light coming through. This double aided printing attempt is a great way to waste ink and time. Much easier to simply print both sides and then stick them together lined up and already cut out ;) half an hour lol. Just cut out on black plastic, a much better affect you can actually do in half an hour.
Try it and share your results, tag me if you produce something cool! I experimented a lot on the way to the method here and I do think the duplex printing method is the best way to consistently professional-looking results. But, a two-layer glueup is certainly doable as well. With a lot of attention to glue evenness and getting *perfect* registration between your glued layers, it can look great.
qual tipo de papel é usado?
eu fiz e ficou como o da sua primeira imagem!
nice method. missing the follow up video.
What about backlit film for printers? Would you still have the same problem with the light bleed in the black and other colors?
first 6-7 minutes my thoughts were... the edges look terrible lol... once you said you weathered them... I was sold on this process!
I agree with you, it's really easy to overdo this dry-brushing technique and the panel in this video is a bit much. It looks best to do it only very, very slightly. Just enough to catch your eye and subconsciously make you think: "that's metal" but not enough to actually draw your eye.
Wow. This is effing brilliant. Here's some thoughts...Have you tried using transparency material for inkjet/laser (clear plastic won't work - they make a special material for this)? The white areas in the artwork should actually come out transparent because there's no white ink in a printer. Ink is actually super expensive. One thing I would do is create an outline shape to use to line things up so you don't have to use a lot of ink until you work out the kinks. Just. Brilliant. 💯
Thanks! Yes you can definitely use a printable acetate transparency sheet as part of this process if that's the look you're going for, in this case I wanted white because that's generally how aircraft cockpit panels look: white lettering while viewed in daylight, but backlit-white at night when backlit. Definitely true that getting your printer settings dialed in with a wireframe design could save a lot of toner compared to running it full registration-black like I show in the video.
I saw another method which does this for the back layer.
Can you use 2 sheets of paper back to back?
When you have a broke LCD screen take it apart. There is a sheet of light diffusion plastic in there.
For the guys in the comments talking about light diffusers.
Back yo the project... why not just print 2 or 3 sheets and placing them on top of each other ?
Great video. Thanks for the info. I'll be using this soon to create a button panel for DCS. So the trial-and-error process of lining up both sides of the print...what would you say to just using two pieces of paper then lining them up easily because they're both the exact same size? This could also have the added benefit of allowing you to use thinner paper because now you're doing two sheets instead of one. You wouldn't even need to flip the design in Photoshop. Just line 'em up with the printed sides both facing towards the user.
Love it, I hope you might consider posting a video or messaging me when you're done! Yes: the two-pieces-of-paper method does indeed work, it creates some fiddly questions about how to mount them to eachother accurately, but it does work. Just test lots of papers to get a backlit look that you like. When backlit, most thin copy paper looks, well, like backlit paper. Thicker higher-quality papers backlight more evently, which is why I started down the path you see in this video.
See here for an example of someone using the two-sheets method: artemis.forumchitchat.com/post/low-cost-weapons-panel-12255047
@@EricFergusonCinema Ok, I did a test using 2 sheets of regular old printer paper. It looks ok. I wasn't in a very dark room, so I'll have to see if there's bleed through when the lights are off. I'll make a video in the next day or two and share it here. Thanks again for the idea!
Awesome idea with amazing results!
Is there a reason to do a double sided print instead of two layers of paper?
Thanks! Yes, you need both layers to fully obsure the light and get a rich black background. One layer, even with 100% registration black, still looks somewhat washed out. Printing on both sides to build up two thick layers of black toner is the key to getting this panel to look "solid"
@@EricFergusonCinema But the question was: How would this work if I printed both layers on separate pieces of paper, and glued them together? Does the light still shine through properly?
@@peterwilhelmsson4168 still shines through, but the two layers decrease the amount of light dramatically. Perhaps doable with the right combination of papers, or with one layer of transparency.
@@peterwilhelmsson4168 Over on the Artemis SBS forums, there's a person building a panel right now using this method, but two sheets of paper carefully lined up first with a painter's tape "hinge", and then spray glued. It does backlight! Noticeably less light transmission than a single layer, but absolutely workable. artemis.forumchitchat.com/post/low-cost-weapons-panel-12255047?pid=1331872677
@@peterwilhelmsson4168 I have used overhead projector sheets layered 2 or even 3 times (in my case because the icons are black and the backlight area is either red or yellow/orange. (It's not for a flightsim setup, but for a bus dashboard).
It's a proces that well...sucks because it's time consuming and it takes steady hands (which I do not have) but it worked.
What about lighter colors like RAL 5017 or RAL 7031 instead of black? Just print the front in RAL 5017 and the back in black or would that cause too much light bleed?
It's worth experimenting with and it's going to vary a lot by the printer you're using. In my experience the effect only looks convincingly "solid" (ie, not just like a backlit poster) at full registration black on both the front and the back. Even a slight deviation from this starts to break the effect. Going for Airbus Blue or Boing Brown on the top layer was a total non-starter, not even close to looking "solid."
This will be better with printers that are willing to dump more toner onto the page in a single layer, or with processes that use more than just two layers.
To some extent the brightness of the backlight you want also affects this. If you're willing to dim your backlight down a lot, you can get away with less toner and still have a solid-looking panel. Conversely, with an extremely bright backlight the effect will break down, just like shining a super bright flashlight at your hand reveals that your skin will eventually transmit some light not just block it.
@@EricFergusonCinema Alright, thx for your answer!
What game were you making your panel for?
Did you ever make a video about the Arduino?
What software did you use to create the print? I am having trouble getting things to print to the right scale.
Powerpoint! I did then import it into Photoshop. But Powerpoint is remarkably useful for basic stuff like this, just need to accept some weirdness eventually when it becomes CMYK from Powerpoint's unavoidable RGB colourspace.
If you're starting from scratch though, I'd recommend Inkscape. Free, fairly easy to use, and you'll work in real-world inches and CMYK so your output will be fairly predictable.
Any ideas on how to do this with a non black panel?
You'll need three layers. In my experience: to get an ordinary laser printer to put enough toner on the page to credibly black out a phone-flashlight amount of light you need full CMYK registration black. Going even slightly in the direction of boeing-brown or airbus-green gets you a look that simply says "this is a backlit piece of paper". The magic happens when you have that truly solid layer of toner. But you could achieve this with three layers. One piece of paper that's black and white mask on both sides, and then one that's your final colour. Just gotta line them up very carefully, and accept that you'll lose some light through the extra piece of paper.
EPICAL
A dye sublimation printer may work better than a laser or inkjet in this application.
Print all your words, outlines etc as a stencil. Stick on plexi glass, paint, then peel off.
You didn’t show how u did the backlighting. Using clear acrylic is not going to spread the light. Typical led strips don’t diffuse light and you’d get spots on fb light and dark. I’m curious how you did the backlighting.
The white paper acts as an excellent diffusion layer! In this video the backlighting is actually just a single LED, from a phone's flash LED. You can see me set the phone into the lightbox at 3:14. All the images in the video were shot with that basic lightbox. Of course with large panel-mount components you'll get issues with shadowing using just one LED like this, so a strip would be better. But no extra layer of diffusion is necessary.
use lighter weight paper but print only one side i.e. top left the front view, and then bottom left the back view.
Cut both sections out and glue together.
Lot less messing trying to match back and front, and 2 thicknesses of paper equal a heavier weight paper anyway.
This is doable, and there's a person on the Artemis SBS forums who built a panel this way. In my experience the challenge is that lighter weight papers have a much more noticeable texture, so it doesn't provide such a clean effect. And, lining the two layers up for a glueup is challenging. It's doable (you can try stapling into a hinge during a dryfit), but fiddly.
Another option is one sheet of heavier, high-quality paper, and one sheet of acetate transparency.
Hi. What kind of letter did you use?
The font is "Jost", a free Google font which looks a lot like Futura. Boeing has used Futura for its instrument panels since the Apollo Era, so it looks right at home on a spaceship instrument panel. fonts.google.com/specimen/Jost
0:16 where you get 2$ laser printer?
I wish printers were less expensive to acquire, this just isn't an option for a lot of people. How did you seal the paper to make sure it doesn't get damaged on the top layer, I don't think I saw that?
Your local copy-and-print place will likely have a laser office machine even nicer than the one I used, for $0.25/page or so. A bit fiddlier to get the registration dialed in, but doable. Regarding sealing: In this video I did not do anything to seal it. Just allowed it to remain as ink on paper. Works great for casual use at home! Wouldn't survive a coffee spilled on it though.
Yeah my worry is spills and scratches. I wonder how bad a clear coat may affect the look.
Why not mask the plexiglass where you want the light to come through and lay down several layers of matt black paint and put the paper template on the painted plexiglass?
Paint would work for a simple design, but in this case each individual letter is masked, which is why you get the crisp look you're seeing here.
Using laser gloss or laser photo printing on a 90 or a 110gsm can (most of the time) not require the double printing
I tried a ton of different papers with very noticeable differences in light transmission quality (some looked like paper fibres, some looked more evenly lit), but all needed a second layer of toner to really convince you that this was a solid black panel with white translucent lettering, not a backlit piece of paper.
I was expecting you to just print two papers... I wounder if that would work just as good. Gluing them with the toner to the back directly. Cutting down on the trail and error... of cause it would dampen the light ..
Why not print them on the same page? One above the other. Draw one, save the image. Then paste the saved image below the first and add/subtract features. Finally, print, cut and paste. Should come out identical in size.
With the right combination of papers to still get good light transmission, yes this would work. It'd basically be removing the difficult task of manual duxpled printing alignment, in favour of your cut-and-paste alignment skills. Some have suggested stapling the pages first, then gluing.
but... why not using two sheets of paper instead of struggling to align two prints on same page?
Works less well than you'd think, because (1) the amount of light getting through drops exponentially, not linearly and (2) lining the two layers up perfectly in a glueup is actually still quite difficult.
However if you're going for a process where the two sheets are sandwiched between layers of acrylic, this is a little more doable. Use a transparency sheet for the "mask" layer.
For the struggling: if you use Photoshop, you can perfectly align it that way, because you can make an A4 paper size template and do a testprint to see how it prints double sided (left-right, or up-down) and then mirror the design to the second page it will print on the other side.
@@Dutch3DMaster Using the printer's built-in duplex function you mean? Yes this works too, but you'll still have some trial and error to see how much error your printer introduces along the way. Tell your printer to print a single dot in the middle of a page, it won't be perfectly in the middle. Shouldn't take more than a few prints to get it dialed in though. You'd be surprised how much small variables affect this though, including the position of the guides if using a bypass tray.
1:18 ... till you want fly f18 or cessna xD
Couldn't you just print on two pages then glue them together?
Instead of printing on a single sheet, why not print the main design on one sheet, and then the black print on another sheet. Then you just layer them.
Ok. Most important question: what game has four warps in it?
I feel like we didn’t get a good look at it in the dark!
A printer that does 2-sided printing probably would work good.
Worth a try! The printer I used is actually a full-duplex printer but I ended up choosing not to use it; after some tests it ended up being even more challenging to try to get a printer's built-in duplex to respect any kind of repeatable registration (ie, lining things up the same way every time), but it likely varies a lot by type of printer. Maybe there's one out there that gives good, repeatable results on both sides with the built-in duplex.
FYI, commercially manufactured edge-lit panels are NOT laser engraved. They're created using a silk-screening process.
I was looking for custom panels for my spaceship ... so yah! anyone building a spaceship gets a sub from me!
How is your project coming along?
How about just using aluminium foil as a mask instead of trying to line up a double sided print? Seems allot easier to me..
This methode have only one problem, if you want to change anithing you need to open the entire button box and make it again
Yes, that's true there would be a lot of backtracking to change something or fix something in the printed design, especially if the material is glued. Watch out for typos!
Oh... I totally and horribly misread that "AVAIL" text.
0:33 2€ +printer + paper = ?
The amount of the printer toner will cost a bit more than $2 ;)
Haha could be! Full registration black is definitely not kind to the toner cartridge. I think I still feel pretty good about the price estimate depending on the size of the panel... but you could certainly blast through a large quantity of panel trying to get the registration dialed in, unless you test with a less intensive file.
Go to a public library that has a laser printer and print it there. Cost is the same per sheet regardless of how much toner is used.
Why don’t you use two pieces of thin paper, 1/2 the thickness of 28 lb expensive Hammermill paper, print separately, line up, and glue together? That will have the same effect of using a piece of double thickness paper and try to do the duplex alignment the tool, the laser printer, you use is not designed for?
It's doable, but it works less well that you might expect because it decreases the amount of light transmission significantly. A sheet of paper and a transparency sheet do work though. Also very challenging to get them perfectly aligned when doing the gluep! You could experiment with different materials to try and get it dialed in.
The good think about duplex printing as I did in this video is that once you get it figured out, it's fairly repeatable. Just gotta ruin a few sheets to get it right.
Result: 1000 dollars in toner.
😂 A reasonable concern. Still much less expensive than the equivalent in spray paint though. Realistically I think you're looking at about $0.05-$0.08 in toner here for a panel of the size you're seeing in the video. Takes a few experiments at that cost to get it dialed in, but then you can run lots of the same dimensions.
6:48 so far you used paper that cost for build multiple time trial and error clue plexi and printer was free! lets not worket drill bit allready over 2bucks and drill
This probably costs more than laser cutting considering how expensive ink is
True that toner's not cheap, but it'll almost certainly work out to being cheaper for comparable coverage than several coats of black spraypaint, which is required for the laser cutting process. (You spray the white workpiece black, then engrave away the paint).
2$ fail. you need buy machine todo it first whaeva it is printer make vinyl or router carve it so its not 2$
No vinyl cutter or router involved here! Just an ordinary paper laser printer and some spray glue. If you don't have a laser printer, you can go to a copy store that'll print your file from USB, it'll still come in under the $2 budget. Honestly if you don't count the several failed attempts to get the registration lined up, the build in this video is probably less than $2 because you could make several with the materials shown.
"impusle" ... lol.
All that work, and you didn't even spell "impulse" correctly. That's hilarious.