Trackball hole in plexi too big

[Chris]

Aw, crud. I'm cutting the plexi for my new control panel, and the hole for the trackball came out 3-1/8 inches instead of 3", and it's not perfectly circular.  (I used a router, but my pivot point wasn't as stable as I thought.)  Now there's a 1/16" gap all the way around the trackball lip, which doesn't sound really noticeable, but it is.  Does anyone have any good ideas for dealing with it?  I was thinking of using very narrow weatherstripping, or a 3" rubber ring or something... or should I just bite the bullet and either cut new plexi or just live with it?

--Chris

[walls83]

you have a picture of it..?

[hyiu]

how does it feels when you're playing ??....
also... how does it look ??....

if the answer is ok to both... maybe you can leave it alone...

[Chris]

I'm still building, so I haven't gotten that far.  I'll post a pic when I get home.

--Chris

[Chris]

Ooh... maybe I should fit glow wire into that gap!

[jcoleman]

If you can afford another piece of plexi, you can try what I did.  I clamped a mounting plate to the plexi where the TB would fit.  Then I cut out most of the hole with a dremel cutting bit.  Then I put the sanding drum on the dremel and sanded (melted?) down to the edge of the mounting plate.  I ended up grinding a little off the mounting plate, but not enough to make a difference.  You could also just use a plexiglass cutting tool to cut out the circle.  See my other posts for an examle of the results.

John

[clok]

go to a Auto Parts store and look for some Car Door edge guard stuff, its built like a U so it slips on the back edge of your car door to prevent dings. You can get it in Crome and Black, and if your lucky a few other colors... Its fairly small so it shouldnt stick up. But after buying it you may have about the same price as a New peice of Plexi. I mayself would cut a new one, as you are going to be looking at that control panel alot in the comming years, decades when you finish that box and start playing.

Clok

[gtjoe]

buy a trackball plate and be done with it

http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/parts.html
or
http://www.happcontrols.com/trackballs/55110100.htm

[Chris]

I have a plate, but the plate is underneath the plexi and the overlay...

Looking at it again, I don't think it's as bad as I first though.  I still have the protective plastic on the plexi, so I think that's contributing to my ngative impression  I'm just going to clean up the roundness with a dremel and a sanding bit and trudge on. If I still don't like it later I'll edge it with something or glow wire it.

--Chris

[grafixmonkey]

Just squeeze some putty into the gap, hopefully something that dries hard and doesn't adhere too much.  I'd suggest liquid electrical tape because it's black and dries hard and rubbery, but it would be difficult to keep it from getting into the trackball mechanism itself before it dried.  Rubber cement might do real well.  

A combination of rubber cement and glow wire might be perfect.  It would smooth out the uneven edge of the plexi and make it disappear, give a smooth surface between the plexi edge and the trackball, and hold your glow wire down.   Just think what this would look like, with a transparent glowing trackball matching your glow wire color!  It'd look very cool and tron-ish.