Trackball, CP, Graphics question all in one!

[chrisindfw]

Greetings, I have a few questions and thought I would post them all at once.

1) Which would you do. Artwork with Plexi over it or just use sticky back vinyl with the artwork printed on it?

2) This one is stumping me. I got a 3" trackball on ebay. It works like a charm! Problem being that it is self contained in its own enclosure. The top of it has a slight overhang. How would you go about mounting this to 1/2" wood panel? Also if I used plexi, how would you mount it so the ball was high enough so the plexi didnt take away any of the functionality of the ball?

Thanks

Here is a pic of the trackball.

[menace]

1.  Artwork with plaxi--cheaper, easier to work with, more versatile if you decide to change the art later.

2.  mount the trackball flush with the control panel, overlay the art and then mount the plexi (1/8" plexi thickness won't ruin your trackball fever--I would hope...)

[Pixelhugger]

Here's what I did. Hands down the best part of my CP. It's a 3" Happs trackball. I routed out the panel to recess the mounting plate. Then covered it with the overlay. The plexi is 1/4" thick. I beveled it and polished it to avoid a sharp edge where my hand could get pinched. Works perfectly and looks amazing-pics don't do it justice. Ask 1UP, he's seen it first hand. I really like the plexi over art 'cause it looks so professional. The 1/4" plexi really adds to that, but you would have to polish the edge of the hole, or it looks like jagged frosted glass.

[mahuti]

I personally like vinyl with adhesive. It's oldschool.

I just never liked that plexi feelin.

Though the last sample looked really good.

[SirPoonga]

I personally like vinyl with adhesive. It's oldschool.

It's not really old school, it's I have a metal control panel so I don;t need to protect it like a wood one.  All the wood control panels I ahve seen int he arcades have something over them to protect it, usually lexan.

[mahuti]

Defender = no lexan, crappy vinyl, wood cp.

old skool.

[DARRYLICSHON]

I would say defender isn't crappy vinyl , it's got a lexan type covering

[OSCAR]

Very few games had plexi installed from the factory.  Although almost every converted game I've seen has it installed.  This is done mostly to cover up the old holes so people don't poke through the conversion overlay where the old holes were.

Although, examples like Pixelhugger's show how nice a plexi overlay can look when done tastefully.  It gives the cp a nice shine, and also gives you something to do when you're not playing games, such as cleaning fingerprints off of it.  

Many classic overlays were silkscreened on a matte/velvet finish polycarbonate skin (example).  Newer jamma/Dynamo cabs commonly used a printed vinyl overlay (example).

[mahuti]

Your local defender might have lexan NOW.

Not when it was new.

Like Oscar said... it wasn't crappy vinyl...

it was crappy polycarbonate, that chipped, cut and flaked easy...

ANYway. Like I said before, that previous example is the best lexan I've ever seen on a cp. If they were all done that way, I might be a bigger fan.

[DARRYLICSHON]

ok my mistake maybe it's crappy polycarbonate thats on the defender

[Minwah]

Personally I am not keen on plexi CP's (although as said the example above looks really nice )  Also I see modern Golden Tee use plexi - I think it looks good (and functions well) on these cabs.

I like somethings stuck to the CP - Oscar's MultiWilliams CP looks just perfect IMO.  I will probably go for some printed vinyl, possibly by the much-talked-about-lately www.classicarcadegraphics.com

[chrisindfw]

I think I will probably go with plexi on this panel since it is my first of many. Once I get the panel done I will work on the cabinet. And since it is switchable, that will help too.

http://Http://www.TallChris.com/CP.jpg

[Stingray]

That's a great looking trackball mount Pixelhugger.

-S