Adhesive/tabbed overlays - C47 & WP43 (DM42), WP3xS, DB48X, newRPL variants!

[spiff72]

Hello all...

Exciting times! (For me at least). The DM42 was delivered today, and I went straight to work on overlay trials for the C47. (I haven't even loaded C47 on it yet!)

I have a good template for fitting the key cutouts now, but only tested so far with paper overlays so I am not wasting my good vinyl.

One thing that surprised me is that it almost appears that the printed background for the DM42 is a separate piece that doesn't seem to be adhered all that well. It's hard to explain, but there seems to be some "float" when I push down on it - especially at the edges. This revelation made me a little nervous about sticking one of my overlays on right away out of concern what would happen when I try to peel it away. (I may try one from my old batch of vinyl (which I have plenty of!) with the weaker adhesive just to try it out).

I wasn't even sure that there were slots on one side of the calculator frame, but then I pushed down on the stock overlay and they became visible.

So I resurrected my idea of using the tabs to hold the overlay in place. I first tried with just a sheet of office paper and it seemed to engage in the slots reasonably well. I then moved on to a sheet of 28# office paper + a layer of my older glossy laminating sheets. Even this thickness seemed to fit in the slots. I feel like I could go even thicker than the .18mm, but probably not by much.

The trouble with this approach (tab attachment - no adhesive) is that while it may work on MY calculator, it may not work on all DM42 calcs. From what I have read here and on the other forum, the height of the opening on these slots is quite variable.

I'm including an imgur link to some photos of the glossy test sample for your reference (I would use the matte finish for the real deal once I get everything figured out). It's a little rough around the key cutouts because I haven't dialed in the cut pressure on the Cricut machine yet - it was set for the vinyl/laminate combo.

Photo Link

Work continues...