Data plate for 1918 radio

[Radio Ron w4ron]

I'm working on the preservation of a 1918 Navy receiver, unfortunately
the cabinet for it is missing. I think I can fab a cabinet it's just a box
that holds the panel where all the radio parts are mounted.
The main problem is the name tag/data plate is mounted on the side
of the box.
I have photos of a couple plates on sets that belong to friends of mine,
what I need is a source that can make a new plate.
They were originally nickle plated copper with the background recessed
and painted black so the info fields could be polished.
I wonder if someone could laser engrave a copper plate, I can get it
nickle plated.
Below is a photo of what the plate looks like.
This one is for a SE-143, my set is a IP-500, they're almost exactly
the same except for frequency coverage.
There's also a photo of the front of the panel.

Thanks,

 

[Lippyp]

I love the knob labelled "Tickler coupler" sounds like an edwardian *** toy!

 

[crerus75]

I don't know if you'd be up to doing this yourself, but etching brass plates is not that difficult to do. You create some sort of mask (resist) and then dip the piece in ferric chloride or similar until it is etched to the depth that you want.

You can use a scanned internet picture as long as it is sufficiently clear. I haven't done it (it's on my list of stuff to tinker with) but a few people on here have. Googling will bring up a LOT of information, and there have been many variations on this theme. After the piece is etched, I'm sure you could plate, paint, and polish as needed.

 

[Zrexxer]

Ron, A_PMech did some photoetching of new data plates for his DoAll bandsaw rebuild. Maybe you can use some of that information:

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=476271&highlight=etch#post476271

Doing some further digging, it looks like the discussion of that subject starts on page 19 of that thread.

 

[joeswamp]

That's quite a radio -- I have to say I have no idea what any of those knobs or switches do!

 

[Alchymist]

If etching in ferric chloride, the plain old black sharpie marker makes a good resist. Only problem I see with a deep etch would be undercutting. May have to wash and reapply the sharpie and further etch. Might work.

 

[Retrosmith]

Are you sure that's nickel plated? I could be wrong but it looks like brass.

You can etch your own using press n peel blue and mixture of Ph Down (sodium bisulfate) sold in the pool department of Lowes and peroxide. If you heat the peroxide, it works faster.

Here's one that I made for an old meter. Its about 2 inches across. I left it over etch to give it a weathered look. Your plate would not need to stay in as long.

Painted with weathering