Mission Control Project: 5 years on, what to do with the leftovers?

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HoopstarsGarage:

--- Quote from: Pixelhugger on November 28, 2005, 09:23:52 pm ---
Any other ideas?

--- End quote ---
A time line showing how long it has taken for this project to be completed - may only be handy for those with widescreen monitors though :)

Hoops

teef two:
I think some pithy introduction might be called for. The following post can only be apologised for!

The Seven Ages of Mission Control (with thanks to W Shakespeare!)
All the world's an arcade,
And all the men and women merely player1 and player 2;
They have their tokens and their quarters;
And one man in his time makes Mission Control,
His acts being seven ages. At first the design,
Sketched out on a piece of scrap A4;
Then the glorious mock-up, with its rendering
And shining reflective surface, creeping in development
Unwillingly to build. And then the research,
Sighing each time, with a woeful forum post
and yet more delay. Then a re-design,
Full of strange curves, and lit like the Aurora Borealis,
Jealous of cabs already built, unsure of his next step,
Seeking the ultimate curved marquee
Even with the derision of others. And then the builder,
Slow to get going, getting mdf primed,
With colours severe and angles carefully cut,
Full of circular saws and modern T-moulding;
And so he cuts the parts. The sixth age shifts
Into the glued and screwed cabinet carcass,
With edges finely sanded and coin door fixed on front;
His highest scores, well sav'd, a cabinet too wide
For his Happs Bezel; and his big manly subwoofer,
Turning again toward childish treble, bleeps
And explosions in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second cabinet and mere oblivion;
Sans Jamma, sans tron joystick, sans steering wheel, sans everything

jfunk:
Wow. I'm betting not many people have poetry written about their (as-yet uncompleted) cabinet ;D

Nice poem, great looking cab!! :)

Brax:
I just realized I'm the very first (non-pixelhugger) reply to this thread. Kinda feels special considering this King Kong-like thread that's developed. ;)

*points to the "I'm #1" button pinned to his chest!*

nostrebor:

--- Quote from: Pixelhugger on December 01, 2005, 05:46:50 pm --- ...But when I was test fitting the plastic over it with the artwork in place I noticed that for all the polishing I had done on the lexan it was STILL hazy...

...I guess Lexan doesn't take a polish like acrylic. Must be too soft. Any advice to fix this would be MUUUUUCH appreciated. If, as I suspect, it's not gonna get any better I'm gonna have to redrill that as well...

...Soooooo...... looks like I'll be salvaging a piece of acrylic from my marquee bending graveyard. Bummer is that the only stuff wide enough is 3/16" thick so the bullnose won't be quite as deep. Sigh...

--- End quote ---

Lexan will not hand polish like acrylic, and will be much easier to scratch later anyway. I doubt that you will ever get the scratches out by hand polishing, to your satisfaction. So if your willing, lets do something risky with your CPO.

Before you trash the Lexan piece, but after you have exausted all other ideas and are ready to trash it, try this:

FLAME POLISHING

Set you torch that you were using for the bending experiment to a LOW heat flame. Start passing over the scratched area with the heat. Far away and fast at first, sneaking closer while looking for the scratches to "soften". This will be hard as hell to do without distorting the face of the Lexan (face polishing is the hardest). You are looking for the scratches to "melt" and then re-solidify into a smooth surface.

Practice on a Lexan scrap first. This takes the lightest of touch, and it is extremely easy to put too much heat in, resulting in bubbles and distortions. The bigger the torch, the harder it is, so use your wimpiest torch. I use a little cheap butane torch with a pencil tip for this, and it is still easy to screw up.

Flame polishing Lexan is a bit of a no-no, and difficult, but if you are goint to toss it anyway...

If you decide to make a new one from acrylic, PM me. Maybe you can make the next one without any buffing or polishing by hand, and avoid the "scratchies".

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