Refurbishing engraved letters on switch panel

[davidmh]

I need to make the engraved letters on a switch panel more readable. the anel is aluminium and will clean up well, the engtaving is quite deep and was originally painted but over th year much of the paint has come off, see photo. What is the best way to to put the paint back on, Can you get paint in a pencil or thin pen it would be easy to follow round with a hard points tool but difficult to do it with normal paint brush. All ideas welcome. Ripping panel out and replacing is not an option,
David MH

 

[LittleSister]

I don't have any particular knowledge/experience, but I would have thought -
clearing the old paint out as best possible with a sharp pointed tool;
cleaning with plenty of alcohol, allowing to completely dry afterwards;
then painting without worrying about keeping it to the engraved letters;
then polishing the aluminium to remove the paint on the front face,
and this should leave the paint in the engraved letters.

 

[oilybilge]

Ah, good. An opportunity to show off the etched brass control panel I made for my boat...

I did the letters as LittleSister suggests, by filling them with enamel paint then sanding away the excess once dry. That's easy if you're going for a 'brushed' look, because you're going to be lightly sanding the whole thing anyway. With the aluminium, I'd be worried that it might be difficult to remove the excess paint without marring the surface of the panel. As an experiment it might just be worth getting one of those waterproof fineliner pens and filling a couple of the letters to see what it looks like. If it's any good it'd be far easier than messing around with paint.

 

[dpb]

As above but wipe surplus paint with cloth stretched across finger whilst wet works for me.

 

[greeny]

I've used chinagraph pencils to good effect on engraving in the past. Fill the engraving up with the wax like core then removed the excess.

 

[penberth3]

I've used chinagraph pencils to good effect on engraving in the past. Fill the engraving up with the wax like core then removed the excess.

Agreed, any soft waxy crayon, rub over with tissue paper to remove any excess.