Which glass tint is best?

[rchadd]

I am about to get some glass for my new cocktail cab, but not sure whether to get tinted glass. I figured a tint might enhance the monitor display. Is this true? Which tint colour is best to go for?

Should I go for Clear, Grey or Bronze?

Any photos of cabs using tinted glass?

[greywolf22]

Check on this thread:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=4779

Also do a search on the topic...lots of discussion around this very thing.  As for me, I'm looking at getting some grey tinted tempered glass for my cabinet.  Hope this helps  

[patrickl]

I don't think I have seen anyone mention an percentage though (how much light is filtered by the glass).

You definately shouldn't go for colored glass. Only gray shades since otherwise the monitor picture will look weird.

[rchadd]

so grey tint would be preferable over bronzed as should not affect the colors.

but after looking at oscars pics i am now wondering if i should go for clear glass and get some smoked plexi just to cover the monitor?

how would cost of clear glass with smoked plexi vs grey tint glass compare?

which would be best solution?

anyone know where to get smoked plexi in the UK?

[MonitorGuru]

Grey tint definitely

All the original games had grey tinted plexi if they used them.   Bronze will give a yellow-orangish tint to everything and will become annoying. Unfortunately it is the only common tint found at retail stores that carry any tinted plexi.

You can roll-your-own by going to Walmart and picking up the auto-tint rolls.  Apply it with soapy water to any clear piece of plexiglass or glass and you have an instant tinted glass.

Each roll will do about 4 to 8 pieces, depending on their size (14x18 to just cover the monitor glass or 24x24 to cover the entire bezel).  They're only $8.99 each and available in 3 darkness tints.

[Sylentwulf]

Can that auto-tint self-applying stuff be removed easily? I wouldn't mind doing it this way so I woudn't be out a whole sheet of glass if I don't like it, plus I REALLY want bezel artwork, but don't have the cash to get it yet (plus I have to design it, which takes me forever). It would be nice if I could self-tint the whole piece of glass, then remove the part of the tint where the bezel artwork is going to be.

Any help appreciated, hope I didn't threadjack too bad

[Tilzs]

Grey Tinted glass

[MonitorGuru]

Yes, if you place the tint on glass, you can easily trim it afterwards (thats what they recommend for car use).  If you put it on plexi, it will be harder since you'll inevitably cut into the plexi with the sharp razor blade to make a clean cut in the film.

Just use a single sided razor, brand new, and you can cut out exactly the square where you want it to stay.

[whammoed]

What kind of cocktail are you making?  If it is midway, they had tinted plexi covering the monitor but the glass top was clear.  I have built two cocktails without any tinting whatsoever.  I'm not sure what the point is unless you are trying to hide something like gaps in your monitor bezel or screen burn.  I thought I had read somewhere they used to use tint because monitor tubes weren't tinted already as they are now and it was good at hiding any screen burn.  I could be wrong.
MonitorGuru??

[rchadd]

its going to be a custom cocktail roughly based on the classic midway design but with a few cunning changes

i am not that hung up on it being a 100% authentic repro. just want good solution.

figure would be easier for me to get grey tinted glass - as i'm in the UK and don't know a supplier a tinted plexi.

re: bezel - now thats another issue yet to be resolved!

i am fitting a NOS 21" hantarex video monitor so no burn to hide - unfortunately due to size i will not be able to use a std happ bezel. figure i will need to try and make one myself. i think grey tinted glass will help to hide my poor craft working

i like to look of tilzs' cab - did you choose how dark the glass is tinted? what spec did you go for?

[rchadd]

Grey Tinted glass

your cab looks great - but does the tint really make an improvement to the display?

did you make yourself a bezel?

[paigeoliver]

It is definitely grey tinted, specifically order 3/16" or 1/4" tempered grey tinted glass. I always get the stuff for under $20 for an upright cabinet, so if one shop quotes you $50 just move onto the next one in the book. You might not be able to actually find it for $20, but you can probably get close.

Remember to measure carefully and order the exact size you need, if you built your own cabinet make sure it is the same width top and bottom and the same height left and right, would suck if your glass didn't fit because your cabinet wasn't right.

[rchadd]

It is definitely grey tinted, specifically order 3/16" or 1/4" tempered grey tinted glass. I always get the stuff for under $20 for an upright cabinet, so if one shop quotes you $50 just move onto the next one in the book. You might not be able to actually find it for $20, but you can probably get close.

Remember to measure carefully and order the exact size you need, if you built your own cabinet make sure it is the same width top and bottom and the same height left and right, would suck if your glass didn't fit because your cabinet wasn't right.

as i'm making a cocktail cab - i figured i'll get the glass first and then use it as a template to cut the tabletop - guaranteed to fit then

as i'm in the UK ill be going for 6mm - don't you just love metric??? NO!

[Tilzs]

Grey Tinted glass

your cab looks great - but does the tint really make an improvement to the display?

did you make yourself a bezel?

I don't know if I can really tell either way. It surely doesn't hurt the display. To Be honest though I haven't really played it without the glass so I don't know if I can really compare the two.

As for the bezel I don't have one. I just cut the top to the size I wanted, a little bigger than the monitor and then used black weathersripping to bridge the gap between the top and the monitor. I do have a flat screen computer CRT in there though so I don't know if the same approach would work as well if you are useing an arcade monitor or a computer monitor with a curve.

[Sylentwulf]

Check oscar's site for the difference between smoked and non-smoked glass. Looks like a very noticeable difference to me.

[MonitorGuru]

Yes... definitely make sure you get the size right BEFORE tempering. You can't trim tempered glass... it shatters into a million pieces if you try!

Yes, the primary reason they used tinted bezels originally was to hide the light gray picture tube since they didn't tint the glass in the tube like they do nowdays on TV sets, plus it dramatically helped hide burn in until it got too severe.

Yes, the midway cocktails used a tinted piece just above the sloping black surround, and just under the clear top. It was sized a hair bigger than the clear "cut out" (where there was no paint on the underlay) so you never saw any of the tube or mounting or reflection of the control panel lights/etc shooting through the top of the cocktail table.  

(Plus in the even older days... this helped hide the "Fake" color tubes.. like space invaders with a plastic multi-banded multi-colored bezel to make the B+W tube look like it was full color)

[patrickl]

Check oscar's site for the difference between smoked and non-smoked glass. Looks like a very noticeable difference to me.

I had some trouble finding the page so here is the link about smoked plexi on the Oscar Controls site Looks like it really brings out the colors.

BTW a cocktail glass top is not gonna cost "around $20". That's for an upright. Cocktail glass is much more expensive since it needs to have rounded and have polished edges. Makes sense that it has to be tempered after it was cut and rounded so this won't be an easy item to make. Oscar paid $92 for the glass in his cocktail example.

[Blakey]

FWIW, I also have a cocktail, and I used a piece of glass ~900x620mm, 50mm radius corners, polished edge, 6mm grey. AU$100, but 3 other prices at ~AU$150, and some at 280/300.

The tinting is great, it hides the monitor when it's not on and makes the games with a black background look fantastic.

PS, metric is awesome.

[MonitorGuru]

My local glass shop quoted $44 or $47 for a 1/4" clear, tempered, radius corners, frosted round over sanded edges.  There was a seller on ebay who sold new ones for $75 shipped for a while, and now another that sells them for $75+$25 shipping.  So you got to assume actual cost in bulk is around $30 for them.

Anything under $50 for cocktail is good.

[jdjuggler]

I wonder about the percentage of tint... If you go to a glass place and ask to tinted plexi, do they give you a choice of tint levels or just whatever they have?
JD