Aluminium extrusion panels

[Ian]

I've slowly been building a CNC machine over the past few months, and I'm now on to the finishing touches (building the control panel and finishing the exterior). At the rear of the machine there are 2 door panels which enclose the electronics (VFD, PSUs, stepper drivers, etc...). They are mounted on aluminium sheets, backed by plywood.

At the moment, the rear doors are just 6mm plywood. They're structurally sound, but they don't look great at the moment. I was tempted to clad them with 2mm treadplate aluminium sheet, so that they match other parts of the machine - but it seems a bit overkill.

Does anyone have recommendations for very tough/hard-wearing paint that would give a professional finish, but be able to stand up the rigours of a workshop? Alternatively, any other hard-wearing sheet material that I can clad the plywood with.

Here's a picture of one of the doors:

 

[Silentrunning]

Ian, I love to add humor to my projects. You could get or make a poster with a picture of large machinery and cut it to fit the door so it appears much larger inside than outside. You could then remove the door, lay it flat and cover the recess with poured epoxy. This would last forever and give you a conversion piece too.

 

[Ian]

Ian, I love to add humor to my projects. You could get or make a poster with a picture of large machinery and cut it to fit the door so it appears much larger inside than outside. You could then remove the door, lay it flat and cover the recess with poured epoxy. This would last forever and give you a conversion piece too.

Hahaha, I like that idea! Poured epoxy would be pretty resilient too!

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Additives, like aluminum oxide, can give paint film coatings superpowers one would not expect.

 

[Ian]

Funnily enough, I tackled this job today and temporarily painted the plywood in some Leyland heavy duty floor paint (polyurethane alkyd resin). It's a temporary job to get the CNC machine up and running, then I'm going to re-visit it and take a look at poured epoxy in the future if it doesn't look good as-is.

I'm so far behind on getting this CNC machine online now, I thought it would have been finished in November .