templates metals on vci
any body now the material of he metal on the vci…i need to now cuz they creating my new templates and we are going to do it on stanlee steel and painted balck and then laser engraved!!
You should take off one the plates and have them check it out. Im sure they can recommend the best metal for the job.
yea the only problem is that they doing the job in another state they got the measurement and everithing they just need to know on what material i want it…i was thinking aluminum but im not sure
Hmm good question, i tried to do some searching,but cant seem to lock onto anything. If i was to take a guess i would say aluminum.
You might want to try searching around to see what other metals are used in other vestax products.
I heard later versions of the VCI were done in aluminum but i havent seen any, i know mines made out of steel because its heavy and a magnet sticks to it.
yea i think its steel is much more likely than aluminium
I agree. I would just consider the cost and durability, then go from there. The most important factor is the paint job, even more than material. Look at Eans old vci-100 mod, the paint has vanished on heavily used areas.
make sure you get enough clear coats on it. Thats normaly what makes a paint job expensive. But even if you get 4 layers of clear on your paint job, its not going to stop a major scratch.
thanks for all the advice guys
If you want to make it so your VCI doesnt chip or scratch after sanding the unit down it has to be etch primed. Basicly its an acid that eats tiny microscopic holes into the metal so when the metal primer goes over the top of it, the paint makes its way into these holes and really grips onto the unit, this etch prime coat goes on really thin and diluted. Just because its etch primed doesnt mean it doesn’t have to be primed, if you don’t put conventional metal primer over the top it will still come off.
What really make a paint job expensive is the prep, Eans original VCI got sanded and some paint thrown on over the top of it and it really shows - no primer was used, let alone a etch primer. Clear coats help, but without a doubt the most important coat is the etchprimer and primer coats, they will determine how much of a beating the top coat will be able to take.
Soo… when i am painting my VCI which will be very shortly i will go though these steps
- Sand unit with 400 grit
- Etch prime unit
- Prime unit
- Sand primer with 600 grit
- Paint unit black with two pack polyurethane - 2 or 3 coats
- Cut and polish unit
- Cover with 2 or 3 coats of Clear.
If you want to put some metal flake into your clear thats also possible, however after doing 2 coats with flake in the clear you need to do another one or two coats without any flakes in the clear. This is to make sure all the metallic flake is covered with clear so it doesnt oxidize, if the flake oxidizes it will lose its reflective capabilities and your flakes will look like crap.
I think bento should make an article for the blog about how to paint your VCI-100 the right way! Take some photos when you do it again 
I agree, my new arcade version has a much better paint job but nothing close to bentos suggestion. Lots of sanding and primer are a must.
thanks bento i so im going to take this article to the guy thats painting my vci 
and ean of course im taking picture of it and im going to do steel and i was wonder if i should do the jog wheel of the same material???
No problem Ean This is been in the pipe work for a while i just need time to get some holes put in my VCI for my arcade buttons and then i can start on the paint job.
I plan on doing an LED mod aswell, one thing id really like to do is switch the red and blue leds around in the jog wheels, so my jogs glow red when idle. Hopefully ill be bothered to change out the rest of the LED’s on the buttons and stuff while i am at it.
At the moment i have a red and black theme idea going in my head, with a red jog wheels and 2 red racing strips going down the middle of the vci.
If you want to go the laser engraved route and go really hardcore, you could have the laser engraving done before you put your clear coats on, then clear coat over the top of the laser engraving so it doesn’t build up dirt, oxidize or corode.
thats was really a good idea yea thanks again
For the Traktor fans here: I was thinking maybe a red and orange theme. Also, that way you wouldn’t have to replace all the leds or at least you could reuse some of them.
Btw, bento, that explanation on painting the vci alone makes me want to do it, altough I didn’t intend to mod my vci in the first place
Actually i am thinking of doing a space invader theme now 
Joachim Garraud ftw! 
that would be baaaadaasss
Id like to slap DjTT logo Midian made (the pixleated one) somewhere on there too, perhaps in place of where the Vestax/Vci100 labels are at the moment.
A couple space invaders on the jogs would look pretty nifty too.
Ill be painting the knobs too and putting a red line down the marked side to make it easier to see what position the knobs are in.
Anything thats made of plastic has to be lightly sanded then plastic primed before top coating.
Im tossing up on ideas on how i am going to do the labels, i might just paint it for the moment and worry about those later as they constantly chance