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Author Topic: Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing  (Read 2535 times)

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ugleymatt

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Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing
« on: May 04, 2017, 07:40:17 pm »
In the building and refining the design stage of my cabinet and looking at the options for plexi for marquee, monitor and control panel.

My plan for the marque is to sandwich it between two 3mm pieces of plexi, one opal one clear, and use a slot cutter to route out a slot to hold it in the cabinet.

For the control panel, probably 3mm on top of 12mm plywood.

For the monitor, I'm going to have smoked/tinted plexi in front of the monitor attached to the plywood bezel.

The Questions i have are :

What thickness of plexi do i need for the monitor bezel, i was thinking 6mm or so, would that be stiff enough?

I've found a couple of UK retailers that do the smoke/tint, but do i want the light or dark grey?

Can I just glue plexi to the plywood? If so what sort of glue should i use?

Thanks for reading this far.

markc74

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Re: Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2017, 07:01:15 am »
6mm is plenty thick enough for a bezel - that's what I use on my cabs. It's certainly rigid enough.

I've tried both light and dark, and personally prefer light, especially at 6mm. Otherwise you might find that it dulls the screen to much. As long as around the display is black, then light grey should be good.

As for gluing perspex to ply. I've never done it - do you need to? The control panel should be held down by the buttons (or screws), and the bezel usually stands in a slot of some kind, and held in place by the CP. Using glue might cause you problems if you ever need to take the thing apart.

64bitmatthew

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Re: Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2017, 10:20:09 am »
6mm is plenty thick enough for a bezel - that's what I use on my cabs. It's certainly rigid enough.

I've tried both light and dark, and personally prefer light, especially at 6mm. Otherwise you might find that it dulls the screen to much. As long as around the display is black, then light grey should be good.

As for gluing perspex to ply. I've never done it - do you need to? The control panel should be held down by the buttons (or screws), and the bezel usually stands in a slot of some kind, and held in place by the CP. Using glue might cause you problems if you ever need to take the thing apart.

I was going to respond, but markc74 said pretty much exactly what I was going to say haha. 6mm is plenty thick enough to be good and rigid.  If it does sag somewhere in the middle or something you could always add another support to hold it nicely, though with 6mm I doubt that would be needed.
For the gluing, I agree that its probably better to not go that route.  With a proper block / slot in place it should hold it just fine.

ugleymatt

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Re: Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2017, 10:26:57 am »
I was basing my design off of this on http://www.instructables.com/id/2-Player-Bartop-Arcade-Machine-Powered-by-Pi/

I had the bezel made of 12mm ply, the monitor would be behind the bezel, attached to a cross brace using the VESA mounting on it.

So Monitor -> ply bezel -> plexi -> artwork.

I could forgo the ply and with 6mm tint do Monitor -> plexi -> Artwork and route a 6mm slot to fit the sides of the plexi in and held by the CP.

Then i would only have to stick the vinyl to the plexi.

1500points

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Re: Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2017, 10:34:02 am »
in the US, Menard's does sell a "bronze" plexi, but you have to buy a big sheet so it isn't too cheap.
Helps soften the brightness on an arcade monitor.

gildahl

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Re: Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2017, 08:31:40 pm »
You might want to consider glass for the bezel.  I have a few minor scratches on my CP's plexi that don't bother me much, but if I had scratches on the bezel it would really bug me.  I had a local glass company make a perfectly sized piece of tinted tempered glass (1/4") that looks fantastic and doesn't scratch.  It cost more than plexi, but not that much more.

southpaw13

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Re: Plexi Questions : thickness, tinting and glueing
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2017, 09:03:41 pm »
Tap Plastics for plexi, use lexan for the control panel.  Much easier to cut the holes.  For bezel, light tint.