Tracker bar notes

Never wanting to leave well enough alone, I got to thinking of ways I could "fancy up" the tracker bar before I stained and finished it.

I thought it would be nice to have little note letters next to their corresponding holes, both as a useful index and as a way to see if I could accomplish "printing" something onto a wood surface.

I worked up the note scale in Photoshop and tried using a bunch of different fonts to see which one would be best. Since my organ is destined to have a "vintage" look, I found fonts that would be both easy to read and yet somewhat old-fashioned.

After getting everything the right size during several test printings on plain paper, I got a sheet of 3M Multipurpose Transparency Film (CG6000) and ran the lettering through my inkjet printer, making sure to specify settings in the print dialog window such as "Flip Horizontal" (to get a reversed image), 600dpi resolution, best print quality, grayscale, etc.

This particular kind of transparency film is made for both laser and inkjet printers. Even though I was using an inkjet, I printed on the smoother/glossier laser printer side, NOT the rougher inkjet side. My testing indicated that I needed to print on the smoothest surface.

Here's how it looked after it came out of the printer.

At this stage, I found it very important to let the film dry for a least an hour or two, even overnight was OK. Trying to apply the lettering too soon will result in smudging. (Fortunately any accidents can be quickly fixed with a bit of sandpaper.)

Being impatient to see the results, I cut out a strip of letters for the smallest 17 notes. The larger 3 notes had a bigger font size, and it would take longer for the ink to dry enough to keep from smudging.

I carefully aligned the strip with the trackerbar surface, and with the ink-side down against the wood, I wrapped it all up in Scotch tape, being careful not to let the strip slide and smudge.

I then used a spoon to rub/burnish the lettering, making sure to move it repeatedly around each area from all different directions. I used the side of a screwdriver shaft to rub the little "flat" symbols, just to be overly safe.

 Here's how it looked when I pulled the film off. You can see that there's very little ink left on the film.

The font I finally decided on was "Maximilian Antiqua", which has a slight hairline shadow on the leading edge of some of the letters. I was happy that this was still defined. Perhaps all that sanding with 1500 grit sandpaper helped.

These are the test pieces I used in my preliminary test. I also tried a couple of different stain colors to see which I liked best, and to see if the stain would cause the inkjet ink to smear - which it did not. I finally got some use out of my failed tracker bar attempts after all.

Here's the final, yet unstained result. I think I'll let the ink dry for a few days before I stain and finish it.