Lexan/Acrylic on CP & trackball

[DougHillman]

So far I've only used a thickly laminated CPO and not covered it with lexan.  My current client is sorta leaning towards a more protective covering though.


What are you guys who've put lexan on your CP doing about the trackball height?  How thick a piece of lexan are you using?  I've seen suggestions of 1/8" along with a 5/8" thick wooden CP so that it fits with 3/4" T-molding.  Doesn't that take away alot of the trackball that's above the surface?  Is everyone using the high lip or high mount balls from Happs?

[Robopede]

Here's a picture of a Happ Highball TB with a mounting plate. There's a black plastic ring around the actual ball that fits inside the hole in the plate. Once installed, this plastic ring sticks up above the plate about .04 inches (rough guess). If you use thin enough lexan (I bought .093" thick), it won't stick up too much higher than the plastic ring anyway. It does stick up high enough, though, that it will need to be beveled or sanded to avoid a rough edge.

Regards,
Dave

[u_rebelscum]

So far I've only used a thickly laminated CPO and not covered it with lexan.  My current client is sorta leaning towards a more protective covering though.


What are you guys who've put lexan on your CP doing about the trackball height?  How thick a piece of lexan are you using?  I've seen suggestions of 1/8" along with a 5/8" thick wooden CP so that it fits with 3/4" T-molding.  Doesn't that take away alot of the trackball that's above the surface?  Is everyone using the high lip or high mount balls from Happs?

If you use the happs mounting plate and the high lip TB, use 1/8" lexan.  The mounting plate is 1/16" think, and the happs high lip is 3/16" tall.  Perfect fit.  (drawing)
 
High Ball lip is 1/8" tall; normal old-school TB have 1/16" lips.

Pictures:
Happs high lip and normal case tops next to each other
Happ High lip and High ball case tops next to each other