Monday, March 29, 2010

Decals applied

The original PFR3 came with a silk screened enclosure. I don't know this to be the "Gospel truth"; but I am assuming that the PFR3A enclosure was manufactured without the silk screening in an attempt to keep the kit's cost down. As a result, the PFR3A comes with a sheet of decals which you have to apply.



I did this tonight; and the picture above shows the result of my effort. The decals went on easy enough; but you can tell they are decals and not factory silk screening. According to the manual, I will have to apply three coats of clear matte Krylon spray to make the edges of the decals disappear and look seamless.

The weather forecast for this coming Easter weekend is sunny with highs on Friday and Saturday supposed to be reaching the mid to upper 70s. So I suppose I will have good spray painting weather and will be able to get this done. I pray that I don't louse this up.

It's so easy to spray too heavy and cause drips and runs. I will have to be super careful. I've taken this much time to build this kit, I guess a little more time won't kill me. But I'm rounding third and headed for home and I'd really love to get this baby on the air!

72 de Larry W2LJ

4 comments:

  1. Warm the can of spray paint in the sink before spraying. Also, have the work be a little bit warm. This will allow the paint to spread easier and bead less.

    After two coats of Krylon, I can still see the edges of the decals I've made for other kits. I don't think a third is gonna do it but, then again, I haven't tried. (I'm using high gloss clear. Maybe satin finish would help hide the decal edges?)

    Regardless, your work looks great.

    Best wishes! K7EDS

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  2. Thank you so much for the tip! I will do that.

    72 de Larry W2LJ

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  3. Larry I just about ordered a PFR-3 from QRPkits but when I saw the shipping charge of $20, plus the note that said they wouldn't ship it immediately, I changed my mind. I will try to find one already out there I guess. The ATS-4 is looking more interesting now anyway, but not sure Steve is going to do a second run though. Woe is me. Happy Easter!

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  4. Brian,

    Happy Easter!

    I guess 1 to 2 weeks isn't all that bad compared to the 10 weeks that I had to wait! But seriously, if anyone is considering placing an order with qrpkits.com, I would advise doing it ASAP as Doug id going to be gearing up for Dayton soon; so there will be inevitable delays associated with that. I think that I am going to place an order for the RF Probe and signal injector combo this weekend ... I know, I must be a masochist!

    ATS-4 looks good and it sold out already, huh? Where are these folks getting all their money - that was 200 kits at over $200 a pop, no?

    72 de Larry W2LJ

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