So as many of you know I'm a Sony guy but I've been reaching out to other brands lately. Saw this Toshiba KT-AS10 for sale on Yahoo Auctions so had to have it. It's in working condition but needs a belt. Will do that in a later date. It was not in very good condition cosmetically especially the cassette door. So I decided to do a slight restoration. Removed everything from the door, the inside plastic lining, the lower aluminium decal and the fast forward button (large triangle). I lightly sanded it down, applied some flexi prime and then applied a few coats of Tamiya Aluminium Gloss paint. The color matched up quite well to the rest of the player. Now comes the task of recreating the lettering. Working in Adobe Illustrator I made a template of the cassette door and was able to create and place the lettering. The only one I couldn't reproduce accurately was the 'Auto Reverse'. Could not find a font to match. So I just used Arial instead. Oh well. I then placed the cassette door on the flatbed UV printer I have at work and printed directly onto the door. Did two passes to get the right density of ink. Not an exact reproduction of the original but I'm very happy with how it looks. This model is like the WM-10's/20's of the Toshiba line up. So many other colors and models. Bloody hell my wallet is going to take a beating again Before After
Ok the more I looked at the photos and the player itself I really started to dislike the way the text looked and the paint was not ideal also. So removed everything again and sanded the door back to the plastic . Reprimed and painted. The printer I used has a High Definition mode which prints a lot finer and is ideal for small texts. So below is the final result. Now I'm happy. Changed the text from 'Bold' to 'Regular' in Adobe Illustrator. Also changed the font for 'Auto Reverse'. Still not the same as the original so there isn't much I can do about that. On the printer surface after printing. Had to prop up one end to have it level to the printheads.
The printer I used is an Oce Arizona 2280GT. It's a flatbed printer so I can print on anything flat up to around 40mm in thickness. It's going to cost you around $150K This is an older model but the same way of printing. This video shows varnish ink being used.
I'm actually in the process of re-doing the whole thing again. The paint did not adhere to the cover well. Even with primer it was easy to scratch off. The paint I had was a few years old. Bought some new paint and surface primer today and will repaint it and get the text printed again. I'm also making a new aluminium plate that sits over the control buttons. Will try and document the whole process and will share on this thread.
This is the panel I made up in Adobe Illustrator. Added a brushed look to give an idea what the final piece might look like. The original is aluminium and around 0.5mm in thickness. Will be getting some aluminium sheets from my local hobby shop. The difficult thing is getting the holes cut out. I have a machine at work that can cut it but not sure if it can handle something that thin.
I don't know if this will help, but coincidentally, I have accurate vectors for the "Auto Reverse" and "Walky" logo. Here they are in PDF/Illustrator format:
For now this is what I have to live with. Have not been able to find some aluminium sheets that are thin enough to suit the controls overlay. I used some brushed aluminium adhesive vinyl. Thanks to @stuck-in-time I was able to replace the 'Auto Reverse' and 'Walky' lettering to the original type.
Here's my first attempt at making a new panel overlay for the controls. Bought a few small sheets of aluminium for a local hobby shop. Thinnest I could get is 0.5mm. For the first attempt I'm quite happy. Was able to get the holes drilled out but I cut the length a little too short. The square holes aren't quite square but hopefully the next one will be better. Once I get it perfect I will be printing the lettering over it.
