Effect of acrylic sheet in front of monitor?

[DietCoke]

I'm building a pretty large cabinet, and yes I know most folks don't like 'em.  I like it, though, and that's the purpose for this particular cabinet, so enough said there.

The monitor I've got in there is a plasma monitor (with appropriate venting).  I am going to need to put a bezel to make a smooth transition, and am going back and forth between getting some aluminum cnc'ed, wrapped with vinyl and installed.  Or a bezel made with AR2 acrylic, then wrapped with vinyl and installed.  But is it possible to just put in one whole sheet (no rectangle cut out of middle) of AR2 acrylic, wrap it with some vinyl and then install it?  Would that have any effect on 2 Aimtrak guns?  The IR receiver for the guns will not be blocked in any case.

The reason on this comes down to cost - it is cheaper to buy the acrylic sheet whole than to have them do a cutout from a sheet of acrylic. 

Come to think of it (as I write this) I guess I'd have to consider glare from a full sheet in front of a monitor... Any types of acrylic sheeting that doesn't cause a lot of glare?

I hope I am describing this properly.

[Slippyblade]

What you are describing is perfectly fine.  Lots of folks do this.  Well, not with vinyl though.  Most folks will just paint the backside of the acrylic leaving the monitor area unpainted.  Works just fine.

[DietCoke]

Perhaps not vinyl, not sure on that part yet.  Thank you for the reassurance!

[stavros693000]

when you say big cab i assume you dont mean chunky like a classic old school cab but wide with a big led/lcd/plasma? correct?  some folks use 50 inch lcd which would be great for HD pc games like SSF4 and MKKE but would probably not look very nice for mame games .......

I used a 26" lcd monitor which is a good size IMO but anywhere up to 32" would be cool.
I made a bezel outta 5mm mdf and painted that and installed clear plexi/acrilic over the top, because i coundnt get my hands on smoked splexi at the time.
Painting the plexi will work and lots of peeps do it that way but ive found the thing with clear plexi is it scratches very easily even when cleaning it with soft tissue or cotton rag. So your probably better of going with smoked plexi or lexan which you can cut to size your self with an acrilic bit for your jigsaw and the left over can be utilized for the marquee.
glass is probably best but i found acrilic is cheaper and much easier to work with

[MTPPC]

Go to your local glass shop and order a piece of 3/16" tempered, seamed, no logo. Any ype of plastic attracts way too much dust. And then when you clean the dust, it creates a haze.

[RandyT]

I always see folks hating on plexi, and never can figure out quite why.  I use dark tinted (which replaced the original polycarbonate front window on my old defender cab) and it's been working out fine for the last 11 years.  No noticeable scratches, and I have used window cleaner and paper towels to clean it many times.  Just don't scrub at it with a really dry paper towel.  I now use a micro fiber cloth as it picks up dust a lot better.  I also don't have any "haze" at all after cleaning.  If you smoke, or the cabinet is next to your kitchen, then I'd expect you might have more of this kind of thing (tar and grease sticks to everything).

Plexi is lighter, easier to work with, can be found easier, comes in more readily available colors and thicknesses, safer and is usually much less expensive.  Nothing wrong with glass, but even many original cabinets on route went with polycarbonate, which is even softer and more prone to scratching.

Use what your preferences, availability and project requirements dictate.  You can't really go wrong.

[DietCoke]

Thanks to you all for your help on this!  I will move forward with the full sheet idea based on the info provided!