I acquired a couple/few RobertShaw oven thermostats along with their dials when I bought my stoves.  I loved the simple domed style of the dials but the numbers and such on the dials were hard to read. And they were dirty, a good cleaning usually removed whatever had filled the numbers and letters.

Probably due to my arts and crafts experience, it occurred to me getting those numbers, marks and brand name to show more clearly wouldn’t be too hard. Color filling by rubbing the dial with enamel paint from one of those little Testor enamel paints used for model toys should do the trick.

Supplies:

• Testor’s Gloss Enamel Paint, 1/4 oz – black
• wooden toothpicks
• Goof-Off or acetone
• cotton swabs

Rub the paint on the dial, making sure it gets into the recesses. Use a toothpick to place the paint into any gaps or recesses. Then after a few minutes, carefully remove the paint on the surface with cotton swabs dampened with Goof-Off. It’s important to remove the paint only on the surface, not in the recesses.

To finish, I sanded the surface with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper, the rotary buff with a soft felt wheel.

Much better.