Custom panels and labels

[ranmar850]

I know this subject has been raised on here fairly recently, but I can't find the thread. Someone posted a link to OMT , Oz Marine Tech https://www.ozmarinetech.com.au/orderingprocess with regards to custom marine panels. I had look at the site, their gear appears gorgeous. I've just fitted windscreen washers to the Reefrunner, which necessitated access holes into the void in the hardtop above the windscreen on both sides. I already had a small hole on the right, for the remote spotlight control panel, but not really big enough . So I decided to cut larger, symmetrical holes each side and cover with traffolyte panels . RHS for the remote spot gear, LHS? --blank panels are boring, so I decided to create a nameplate for the boat.
So I contacted OMT Sunday night with a rough outline of what I wanted, just lettering, no logos, matt white panel with black engraving. Middle of Monday morning, no reply, but I'd been thinking about the Qld-based mob who did my most recent labelling, wherer I had labels made for all the unlabelled switches and the CB's down the stern. They are called Plastic Tags, here is their ordering page. https://plastictags.com.au/tag.php They seem to do absolutely everything for everyone. The link gives you to option of simple tags, with size, material, adhesive backing Y/N, letter sizing--but, at the end, there is a box called advanced designer . I dramatised this in bold because this is where it gets really interesting. You can then start to add cutout holes for switchgear, move text boxes around, have a huge choice of fonts, and can insert logos. They have a library of logos, icons, etc on that page, but you can add a custom one.it needs to be an SVG file, this is what engraving machines use. I decided on a stylised marlin because that is contained within the boats'name. A quick google of marlin svg file gave me a mass of choices, so for $4.70 I bought one from Etsy, downloaded file, and added to the Icons section.
It was then simple to insert it, re-size and postion, and radius the corners for a finishing touch.
So if all this sounds a bit hard, here is the costing. I ordered the three labels below, all 3.2mm--Remote switch panel, Boat name, ( both 140 x 85mm) and blue/white label for washer switch. All up , delivered, $37.40. I had a reply from OMT this morning--their rough quote was over $180 , for two. . If you break it down, the difference is probably that, in using the Plastic Tags online form, you are actually doing all the creative work, ie, you are creating a file which they then put in a machine, voila, out comes the finished job.When you submit, they immediately send you a Cut Sheet, actual representation of what it will look like, you have 30 minutes to make a change if necessary. OMT look at your mud map, try to make sense of it, someone enters the data, sends it back to you, you make corrections, they do it, and so on. A lot more of their time, hence, money.

If anyone wants to go down this route with Plastic Tags, I can give you all the instructions on how to operate the on-line ordering sytem, including the Advanced designer option, easy when you know how.

[Corry]

Sounds fantastic, I'll be looking at a switch panel in the future to add more to our current one.
Interested to hear what you think about it when you get them.

[ranmar850]

They should be here in a few days, I'll let you know.

[ranmar850]

Ok, they arrived yesterday. Quality is very good, exactly what I ordered.




The sizes of holes in the remote spotlight panel were the size I ordered, all went together this morning as planned for.

[Qlder1]

They look really good. Ranmar, could you tell me if light will show through that little black one with white etch? I need a black dash panel with backlit white lettering.

[ranmar850]

I honestly don't know if they will do anything you could backlight. OMT, mentioned in my original post, certainly do backlit panels, in the materials which are suited to it( which is not all of them) https://www.ozmarinetech.com.au/orderingprocess