I might have learned my lesson... plexi

[BillyJack]

I had a party this weekend in which my cab was never lonely.  It involved drinking and cursing etc. and everyone had a great time.  The next morning i went to look at the cabinet (shut it down) and OUCH there are quite a few light scratches (looks like the number 3 was etched) in the plexiglass that covers the monitor.    Gonna save up for some lexan i guess.


BillyJack

[Stingray]

Thinking about using glass on mine for this very reason.

-S

[Minwah]

Thinking about using glass on mine for this very reason.

-S

I'm definately using tempered glass for mine too.  I've never seen a 'real' arcade machine with plexi in front of the monitor - I'm not saying they don't exist but all the old machines I used to play on used glass.

I had enough 'fun' with plexi at school - it usually ended up scratched to hell before I even finished cutting it!

[BillyJack]

yeah, my cabinet had a piece of plexi in it originally.  That's why i replaced it with the same stuff.  

[Brad Lee]

Lexan is stronger than Plexiglass, but if I recall correctly, it is more prone to scratching, since it is softer

[Krynos]

Lexan will scratch up more than regular plexi. I have smoked plex over my screen, and lexan on the CP. My CP cover is getting a little worn now, nothing ugly though, gives it a nice used feel.

- Rick

[Pat S]

Um, you can polish out most scratches unless they're deep.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Sounds to me like you need to get different friends first, and THEN get a new piece of plexi.

[gork]

I am going with tempered glass. My roommate's uncle is a glass guy, so I'll probably be able to get it at cost. I would have looked at acrylic if it weren't for the inside connection, though. You could replace it about 4 times or more before you'd be buying glass.

[shmokes]

Glass aint that expensive.  I had a piece about 2 feet by 3 feet of the strongest stuff you can get cut for a light table I built my wife and it was like $45 for 1/4" glass and an equal sized 1/8" white plexi to go underneath it to diffuse the light.  If your plexiglass is already smoked just keep it and put it behind some new tempered glass.

[APFelon]

Someone "tagged" your machine with the number 3?

Man... that's really low for an aquaintance to do, let alone a friend. I'd make them cough up sone dough.

APf

[BillyJack]

not sure who did it.  and it doesn't look like someone did it on purpose... just resembles it a lot.

[Harakiri]

What w3r3 th3y smoking dude...  

[Brad Lee]

What w3r3 th3y smoking dude...  

Maybe they were playing a lot of racing/Nascar sims?*



*I know Im a terrible person

[daeven]

Why do anything but tempered glass?  I believe I paid $25 for 1/4" smoked, tempered glass to cover my Lusid cabinet's 27" WG monitor.  If you are getting quotes that are too high, call another place.  I had a Midway cocktail table top cut and tempered for $41.  These are Chicago area prices - maybe things cost more elsewhere.

[OSCAR]

I have a mix of plexi, glass, and lexan that cover the monitors on my collection of cabinets, and to tell the truth, it's pretty hard to tell the difference between them when playing.  Then again, I don't have people over that beat on the screens when I'm not around...

I clean the plexi, lexan, and glass monitor covers with car wax.  It seems to help keep them clean longer, and protects the surface a bit from the minor scratches and scuffs you get from wiping them down or from accidental bumps.

[SNAAAKE]

Gonna save up for some lexan i guess.


BillyJack

Lexan scratches even more AND it attracts dust more then plexi .
Get tempered glass

PS: people already said what I just said but I didnt read.My bad

[Wienerdog]

I picked up a piece of 1/8" Bronzetone Acrylic that I planned to put in front of  1/4" wood painted black (to act as support and a bezel).  I also considered putting a clear piece of tempered glass in front that would be easier to clean and give the Acrylic more support.  Should I just give up that idea and track down some 1/4" smoked and tempered glass instead?  

My greatest concern is function, but I'm also watching prices.

(I'm in the Western Chicago suburbs, any suggestions)

[Tailgunner]

Glass is better, but it's not scratch proof either. My Space Duel cab has smoked,tempered glass and it's got a nasty scratch in the middle of it.

If you switch to glass, make sure people who are playing watch their jewelry, diamonds will easily gouge even tempered glass.

[Carsten Carlos]

Tempered glass is the way to go! Centipede approved, at least on my cab!

Think of smoked grey one, Oscar had a nice thread showing how much it improves your picture.

[GroovyTuesdaY]

Always apply the one major rule to ALL guests :

DO NOT SIT ANYTHING ON THE COCKTAIL GAME!!! NOTHING!
No drinks,No food,NOTHING! lol.

My children have had this one drilled into them HARDCORE and they still "want" to set crap on it. So, in turn dad sets his hand on their ass  lol.

At least plexi would be a cheap replacement in case it did ever get scratched.  The glass sounds like its EXPENSIVE.

g~

[Minwah]

Always apply the one major rule to ALL guests :

DO NOT SIT ANYTHING ON THE COCKTAIL GAME!!! NOTHING!
No drinks,No food,NOTHING! lol.

My children have had this one drilled into them HARDCORE and they still "want" to set crap on it. So, in turn dad sets his hand on their ass  lol.

At least plexi would be a cheap replacement in case it did ever get scratched.  The glass sounds like its EXPENSIVE.

g~

You HAVE to allow drinks on a cocktail!  Just enforce coasters...

Then again, no damn kids are ever going to play on my cocktail (or mame cab for that matter) so don't have that worry  

[Stingray]

Then again, no damn kids are ever going to play on my cocktail (or mame cab for that matter) so don't have that worry  

Ditto. No kids at my house!  

-S

[Carsten Carlos]

Ditto. No kids at my house!  

This can change faster than you think! Believe me  

[Tilzs]

Always apply the one major rule to ALL guests :

DO NOT SIT ANYTHING ON THE COCKTAIL GAME!!! NOTHING!
No drinks,No food,NOTHING! lol.

My children have had this one drilled into them HARDCORE and they still "want" to set crap on it. So, in turn dad sets his hand on their ass  lol.

At least plexi would be a cheap replacement in case it did ever get scratched.  The glass sounds like its EXPENSIVE.

g~

Glass isn't as expensive as one would think. I'm getting my smoked cocktail top cut and corners radius'd off at a local glass shop for around $50.

Obviouslly more than plex, but for ~6 square feet, $50 isn't bad.

[Witchboard]

It wouldn't be worth it for me to build a cabinet if I couldn't enjoy it with my children.  As far as glass or plexi goes, either is susceptible to abuse.  If somebody wants to damage it, they will.  Maybe BillyJack should consider putting up chicken wire to keep those flying beer bottles at bay.  

[mushmouth]

I got a piece of smoked, tempered glass made by a local glass supplier in Fargo for my upright Pac cab monitor glass for $30. That included a light sanding/grinding of the edges to remove the sharpness.

Plexi for monitor glass, IMHO, is a crazy proposition. Sooner or later someone somewhere is going to get carried away and smack the glass when they see "game over" 10 points from a free guy. No matter how rational or calm you think your friends are, video games bring unexpected things out of people... lol

[NoOne=NBA=]

I let my sister's kids play my upright/computers/PS/etc.. all the time.
I have a strictly enforced rule for EVERYONE...you touch the bezel, you don't get to play anymore.
You beat the controls, you don't get to play anymore.
There is no discussion about it, they are just done and know it.
I have actually had one of my nephews come out and tell me that he couldn't play anymore because he yanked the joystick....and I didn't even SEE him do it that time.

I have the same kind of rules for the PS.
You use it properly, or not at all.
No throwing the controller, smacking the open button, leaving games out of their packages, etc...
If I come in, and a game is out of it's package, you're done.
My game CD's don't even have FINGERPRINTS on them, and those kids have pretty small hands.

[Witchboard]

I have similar pet peeves.  Like touching my computer monitor.  My wife still taps on the glass putting her fingerprints all over my screen when she's trying to show me something.  I have yet to break her of that habit regardless of how many times I've been after her with the squirt bottle.  I'll have similar rules with my cabinet.

[Sephroth57]

I have similar pet peeves.  Like touching my computer monitor.  My wife still taps on the glass putting her fingerprints all over my screen when she's trying to show me something.  I have yet to break her of that habit regardless of how many times I've been after her with the squirt bottle.  I'll have similar rules with my cabinet.

squirt bottle, LOL  

[NoOne=NBA=]

My wife still taps on the glass putting her fingerprints all over my screen when she's trying to show me something.

Get her her own computer, and tell her to stay away from yours.
That works for me.
It also makes it really nice when I have ladder matches on Unreal Tournament.
That way she can use her computer while I am playing, instead of standing behind me telling me to "hurry up" because she has something "important" to do.

[GroovyTuesdaY]

My wife still taps on the glass putting her fingerprints all over my screen when she's trying to show me something.

Get her her own computer, and tell her to stay away from yours.
That works for me.
It also makes it really nice when I have ladder matches on Unreal Tournament.
That way she can use her computer while I am playing, instead of standing behind me telling me to "hurry up" because she has something "important" to do.

Although this is off the topic of the thread and for that i apologise, i feel the need to vent on this one as well lol.
I learned back in my first marriage that 2 computers are a MUST!  I got so sick of the whining "are you about done yet?"   , that i built a crappy old computer up just for her and my kids so i could be left alone to play games or burn cd's or what have you and not be nagged to death. That, if nothing else, is probably one of my BIGGEST pet peves!!!! I HATE NAGGING lol.

The same has translated into my obsession with arcade related stuff. I had one 2 player controller and my 4 kids were always fighting over who was playing next, SOOOOO, i built a 4 player panel and that solved all my troubles lol, as long as they dont fight over what games they want to play of course.
But with 2 panels, i rarely hear whining about the games.   I would really love to build another gameing rig up , but man, it does cost MOOLAH.    I figure by the time your all done, assuming you want to have a reasonably up to date  computer to play all of the games with, your going to have close to $1000.00  rapped up after buying all of the controls and computer related stuff and thats not really going ALL OUT, but just a decent setup. Maybe a p4 2.4c or something similar.  Honestly i have never really sat down and priced out a complete gaming setup , as i have always just done it as i had money, but that may change shortly as one of myfriends has become WAY MORE obsessed than i am at this "old arcade" scene.   He really has no intrest in building it himself or doing any of the work, he just wants to play.  We looked at some of the prebuilt complete cabs etc and he didn't want to spend thousands for something , so i said i would put it all together for him if he buys all the stuff. lol.  Hey,  what are friends for if they can't help you save a grand lol.

Ok, enough on this one.  I'm tired of typing. lol

groovy~

[Witchboard]

Ready for the kicker?  She DOES have her own computer.  It's when she's walking by kinda thing.  She the fingerprint ninja or something.

But back on topic.  I plan on getting tempered glass.  With kids and my accident prone wife around, it would just be safer.  I wasn't thinking about getting smoked glass though.  I'll probably look more into it when I begin the planning stages of my cab.  Right now, I'm just pricing the parts.

[GroovyTuesdaY]

Quick question.  Is there a particular reason to buy the smoked glass other then for anti glare reasons?  Just curious.

groovy~:D

[Carsten Carlos]

Nope, you get better contrast - black for example just looks richer on space games! They did this on old TV's - now many TV's have tinted glass in the tube itself.

Oscar has a comparision somewhere, and it's awesome!

[Stingray]

Also the tint helps to hide the fact that you're using a TV or PC monitor instead of a genuine arcade monitor, if your cab is set up that way.

-S

[Wade]

Plexi isn't much cheaper (if cheaper at all) than glass.  I didn't want to worry about scratches so I got a piece of 1/4 glass cut and tempered for < $30.  It was 24x27 if I remember correctly.

Sure, tempered glass can get scratched, but it is MUCH harder to scratch than plexi.

Wade

[flipped cracker]

acrylic is more scratch resistant than plexi. that's what i'm going with.