Question about acrylic

[lordoxide]

Hey,

Has anyone gone the route of getting their CPO directly printed on the backside of acrylic? Generally looking around i have found printing a 47"x13" on vinyl, then buying the same size acrylic will run me about 50-60 shipped, Signs.com has a discount that can get me a shaped piece of arcylic, with all of the holes I need predrilled, and my CPO printed in full color on the back, for about 80 bucks shipped. Has anyone gone this route, or have a reason this would be a bad route to go?

Thanks,
Tom

[Mike A]

Acrylic scratches easily. Some scratches can be buffed and some can't. If you decide to replace the acrylic you will have to pay for the artwork again. Granted that could be a long time from now if your cab doesn't get tons of use in a party setting.

[big10p]

Polycarbonate would probably be better for a CP. It's much tougher than acrylic.

[Mike A]

Polycarbonate is more impact resistant, but it scratches even easier than acrylic. You don't need more impact resistance unless you have friends with anger issues. Acrylic is plenty tough enough.

[big10p]

Hmm, that hasn't been my experience of polycarbonate. It seems far harder to scratch - or remove scratches from -  IMO. I think even Novus says on the label it doesn't work on polycarbonate. I've tried, and it doesn't. Maybe I have special scratch resistant stuff, or something. 

[Mike A]

I am not sure what your experience is so I won't dispute your particular case.

Coloradoplastics.com
"Each of the two have benefits and drawbacks. Acrylic is shinier and polycarb is stronger. Acrylic is less expensive but easier to crack. Polycarb is more impact resisant but easier to scratch. They are both stronger and lighter than untempered glass; acrylic is 4x to 8x stronger than glass, while polycarb is about 200x stronger.

A video produced by the motorcycle windshield company National Cycle illustrates some of these differences by showing the effect of various projectiles and weapons on both acrylic and polycarb windshields.
By the time you finish watching a faceless guy in the video hit the windshields with everything from a slingshot to a baseball bat (and a hammer, shotgun and semi-automatic pistol) you’ll get the idea that polycarb bends (and scratches) but doesn’t break; and that acrylic stays stiff and shiny but cracks and shatters under impact."

Its the same reason acrylic is preferred for aquariums. It is more scratch resistant than polycarbonate.

[lordoxide]

Ok so this is a hard choice:

Printed on Acrylic:

Pros:
Image is perfectly aligned
Holes are perfectly cut
Save a lot of time, now and in the future, no aligning the CPO, cutting acrylic, etc.
No shattered acrylic, or cut hands
The look of printed acrylic looks really "professional"
Can flush top mount controllers with no fear of needing to rip up the CPO if I need to ever replace controllers in the future

Cons:
Costs ~30 more initially
Future changes will could cost 4-5x more then either piece individually
Need to replace entire thing If I want to change the CPO (like if I can't stand the player 3 and 4 being not angled)
Need to replace entire thing if arcylic gets scratched
Need to replace entire thing if a rowdy friend shatters the acrylic

So I think it comes down to this, in general how often do people replace their CPO or acrylic.