Machine Shop

Tek Circuit Computer: Cursor Hairline Filling

Some cleanup and a fresh layer of double-sided tape gives the cursor milling fixture plenty of adhesion:

Tek CC - Cursor blank on fixture
Tek CC – Cursor blank on fixture

This time, I diamond-scribed three PETG cursors through the transparent protective film, with two / four / six passes:

Tek CC - Cursor hairline filling
Tek CC – Cursor hairline filling

It’s not a Purple Crayon, but it suffices for my simple needs.

Scribbling a (soft!) lacquer crayon over transparent plastic still scuffs the pristine surface around the engraved line, so I tried scribbling the six-pass cursor before peeling the film, as shown above. Unfortunately, the film shreds left around the line either prevent a clean fill or pull the paint out of the ditch as the film peels back:

Tek CC - Cursor lacquer fill
Tek CC – Cursor lacquer fill

Peeling the film and scribbling ever-so-gently left a more complete line, but, if you look very closely (perhaps opening the image in a new tab for more dots), you can see the scuffs left by the scribbles on either side of the line:

Tek CC - Cursor 2 4 6 scribes
Tek CC – Cursor 2 4 6 scribes

When seen from the other side against laminated decks, though, the scuffs pretty much vanish:

Tek CC - Classic Tek Logo vectorized - red hairline
Tek CC – Classic Tek Logo vectorized – red hairline

The red hairline isn’t historically accurate, but I like the way it looks.

Give me some (heavyweight matte) paper and a (lacquer) crayon, put me in a basement (shop), and I’ll be happy for days …