OH SNAP! ...Update time.
First off, very impressed with OneDayGlass.com. In less then a week they made my glass to spec and delivered it to me over the border. If you need a sheet of glass for your project they are a pretty solid choice.
Now, on with the update! As mentioned the display glass has arrived! It is a Dark tint ¼" sheet of tempered glass, custom made with a pencil grind on two edges. overall dimensions are 25" x 31"13/16ths.
I picked up some ½" closed cell foam weatherstripping from Home Depot. Its a little thick, however it should give the glass a snug fit.
I cut two strips and attached them to the rails on either side of the display.
Next i made sure to clean the display, and add a small bit of electrical tape over the TV's green indicator light.
The glass can be installed two ways. With one person where you remove the control panel box, but that could take ages and is best done when relocating the cab. Or the second method is to use two people and prop open the CP lid. I haven't installed the nice little stay chains yet, so i had to hold it open with a half deck of cards. (Pardon the hazy picture, forgot to clean the fingerprints off lens of my iPhone).
The tolerance is just enough that it fits up into the top of the cab, then slots down into the back of the CP box mounting surface. Exactly as planned so many months ago.
I am very happy with how the display glass turned out. As i said, its a bit snug due to how thick the foam is, but its solid. I'm not painting the back of the glass. I purposefully made everything i could inside black so i wouldn't have to mask off the glass or add some kind of bezel. The added bonus is that you can see the CPU through the lower part of the display when you open the hidden utility panel on the front.
Its hard to tell in the pictures, but the glass goes right to the bottom of the base of the CP box, and totally encloses the display area off. It looks so slick and bad ass in person.
I still have a few more smaller things to do: Some 120v wiring, adding the serial number plate, make a couple changes to the CP wiring to help in game control setup/coin door operation better, some software tweaks, shelling Windows, programming the button LEDs, adding a light diffuser under the Trackball LED, and finishing the setup of the emulators. For now though here are a couple pictures of the lighting test i ran after installing the glass to check for glare and play distractions...
It's REALLY hard to see in the pictures, but with the dark tinted glass in place, and a game running, the screen looks like its just floating in the middle of the glass. Its really cool!
...More to come... We're not done yet folks!
Thanks for the detail in this thread, i just started my build today based on your design.
If you have the time, i have a few questions regarding your TV and the glass in front of it.
1) Did you get the "Dark Gray" tint?
2) Are the pencil grind edges on the left and rights sides?
3) Did you put anything around the tv the 'enclose' it?
3a) If you didn't, with the tinted glass, do you see anything around the tv?
4) Does the tint affect the color / picture quality? Did you have to turn the brightness up on the TV?
5) The glass i was quoted was about $150 for the glass shipped, about right?
Thanks in advance.