06-18-2016, 09:38 AM
After a lot of experimentation, I found all you need is a little photoshop, shrinky dink material, and water slide decals.
First I scanned in a blank section of dial to get the approximate color and made a new picture in the shape of a tab with the background of that color in photoshop (technically gimp, a free alternative to photoshop). Then I dug through a lot of fonts until I found one that matched pretty closely (Gothic CG No2). For the star, I found that it is almost identical to a security Torx screw, so i just found that shape and resized it. I then made all my tabs and combined them into a single picture to print.
Then I printed it on a sheet of water slide decals and sprayed the clear coat on them. I then cut the decals out slightly smaller than the size of the actual tab. I slid them on the clear shrinky dink material. When unshrunk, it's the perfect thickness. They do make shrinky dink material you can print directly on. But during my experiments I never got it to turn out with the color and opacity I wanted.
I then cut the shrinky dink material to the tab size. The reason for under cutting the decal is so that you can shoot another layer of clear coat that binds the deal to the shrinky dink material. I found that the decals do not adhere all that well to the shrinky dink material on their own. And they would slide off when I tried inserting them into the tuner wheel. That extra shot of clear coat with a little material to bind it too holds the stickers in place perfectly.
If anyone is interested in doing the same, I can save you a little time and give you the base tab file I made and can try and walk you through making an entire sheet of them. Its been 2 years since I did it, and I was never that great at photoshop/gimp to begin with. Or, if you live in the Milwaukee area, I can just give you a full sheet ready to print!
First I scanned in a blank section of dial to get the approximate color and made a new picture in the shape of a tab with the background of that color in photoshop (technically gimp, a free alternative to photoshop). Then I dug through a lot of fonts until I found one that matched pretty closely (Gothic CG No2). For the star, I found that it is almost identical to a security Torx screw, so i just found that shape and resized it. I then made all my tabs and combined them into a single picture to print.
Then I printed it on a sheet of water slide decals and sprayed the clear coat on them. I then cut the decals out slightly smaller than the size of the actual tab. I slid them on the clear shrinky dink material. When unshrunk, it's the perfect thickness. They do make shrinky dink material you can print directly on. But during my experiments I never got it to turn out with the color and opacity I wanted.
I then cut the shrinky dink material to the tab size. The reason for under cutting the decal is so that you can shoot another layer of clear coat that binds the deal to the shrinky dink material. I found that the decals do not adhere all that well to the shrinky dink material on their own. And they would slide off when I tried inserting them into the tuner wheel. That extra shot of clear coat with a little material to bind it too holds the stickers in place perfectly.
If anyone is interested in doing the same, I can save you a little time and give you the base tab file I made and can try and walk you through making an entire sheet of them. Its been 2 years since I did it, and I was never that great at photoshop/gimp to begin with. Or, if you live in the Milwaukee area, I can just give you a full sheet ready to print!