Top mounted & recessed joys....will my artwork dent inward?

[pinballwizard79]

So I want a new control panel right?

Going to go all out, flush mount everything all nice & purdy.

I have a question for everyone out there with recessed & flush top mounted items (trackball, joys & etc).

If I set my joystick in the top of the control panel & its flush but since a huge part of the joystick isnt flat (meaning the edges of the joy are higher than the rest of the device) if I lay a CPO over the joys & then a plexi I know it would be smooth & flat on top but would the art dent in towards the lower part of the joys & leave an indentation?

WWBYOACD?

[Neverending Project]

I believe he is talking about flush-mounting one of these from the top of the CP, and then putting plexi over it. Since there is a recess in the joystick housing, would that cause a visible issue with the CP art?

[pinballwizard79]

Yep, exactly what I am talking about

[Franco B]

The first thing that popped into my head would be to sandwich the art between two acrylic layers.

You could put a 2mm acrylic sheet on top of your control panel, put the artwork on top of that and then put another 2mm acrylic sheet on top as your top CP surface.

[LeedsFan]

^  You could do exactly what France says above. But I'm cheap so I'd probably fill the recess out with bits of cut-out card to make it flush.  I'm not sure the art would drop into that small a space anyway, but I would fill the gap with card just to be sure.

[Franco B]

Bah, two thin panels wouldn't cost much more than one thicker panel

[EwJ]

Just get your artwork laminated.
Plenty of places do it cheap and quick.
It'll firm it up enough so it won't sag/wrinkle/dent.

[pinballwizard79]

Yeah I will get the laminated stuff + cut out card I think = perfecto

Thanks for the info guys

[Nacimroc]

I've made 2 CP's now and I flush mounted both joysticks both times! I used filler to fill in any indentations before putting my artwork over it! The problem I had was the filler dried out and shrunk over time and its clearly visible where the indentations are. Wish I went with laminated method now.