[David G4EBT]

I wouldn't decry Letraset - I used it a lot when there was little option other than those horrid embossed Dymo labels. I'm just saying the in my view, for Letraset to look right, every single letter has to be accurately spaced and correctly orientated, which is quite challenging, needs a keen eye and a steady hand. Then the lettering protected by varnish and clear film or some such thing. I've attached a couple more examples of projects from the '70s on which I used Letraset. Firstly, a Crystal Calibrator, the front panel of which is black card with white Letraset applied, then covered with a sheet of 2.5mm glazing acrylic. Secondly, a not very sexy looking solid state Direct Conversion receiver.

I think for anyone who doesn't wish to get into creating artwork, or making water-slide transfers and what not, a label printer is by far the easiest option, and the method I've used for many projects for the last twenty years or so. Pic 3 is a 0-30V current limited power supply with four current ranges up to 2 Amp. On that I used blue lettering on white tape. The fourth pic is of a capacitance meter on which I used black text on white tape, but put a box around the lettering. The last pic is a zener diode tester, with blue lettering on white tape, with the lettering in boxes.

Hardly any skill is called for to create and fix the labels, they stick really well, are durable, and to my eyes at any rate, look quite presentable, with no hassles. You can alter the font size, width, height, have a range of symbols, punctuation characters, use upper and lower case as desired, underline the text or put boxes around it, and can choose italics. Apart from being far less hassle than Letraset, they're far more versatile and are no harder to fix than to put a stamp on a letter.

The printer I use is a aging Dymo one, but there is a wide range of makes. They're not that expensive, nor are the tapes.

Thanks for the compliments guys, I don't want to appear to be using the thread to 'showcase' my homebrew projects - I'm just outlining the various options that I've used over the years to try to make my projects look presentable, and to outline the pros & cons of each option.

If those amplifiers sound half as good as they look Tony, and I'm sure they do, that's your reward for the effort involved - they'd grace any living room. If I'm not mistaken, the larger one featured in two issues of Radio Bygones, with the valve-holders and other components mounted on PCBs. The stereo 3-3 looks splendid!