Bezel Creation Help

[ginno]

Hi guys, i have finally mounted the TV in my cabinet, she is quite a tight fit meaning the piece of perspex will be flush with the front of the cabinet.

My issue is what is the best way to create / mount a bezel?

I have looked at tailgunners tutorial which is good except the different between his is that his monitor is mounted in a wooden frame where mine is mounted in a steel free standing frame.

[Tailgunner]

How are you supporting the perspex at the top and sides?  With your monitor being offset so close to the bottom I'll agree this one will be a bit of a challenge, but it's still doable.  I'd suggest adding a cardboard flange around the edges that extends backwards a few cm into the monitor opening. This flange would stiffen the bezel's edges to make it self supporting.

[Wienerdog]

Honestly the easiest thing to do in this case is paint the inside of your cabinet screen area black (with a 1" brush, don't take the monitor out) and then use smoked glass or Plexi. 

Worst case, you could just make a flat bezel.  You won't actually see the bezel because of the smoked glass.

[Stormy151]

Why not use a large piece of black art board, cut the screen area out, then back the plexi with it.  If it's going to be as close to the screen as you say, it should work.

Painting the area around the monitor inside of the cab black would help too.

[ginno]

I am going to have to screw the perspex directly into a brace that has not yet been created above and below the monitor.

Doing this would make a bevel at the top and botton of the monitor so maybe i should run a bead down the left and right of the monitor as well.

[Wienerdog]

Sorry, I wasn't being clear since I was a little rushed this afternoon.

I meant to paint the the wood of your cabinet black instead of white on the inside, and then used smoked glass or plexi.  It's not a $2 solution, it would cost you about $25 for smoked plexi, or about $50 for smoked tempered safety glass.  You would be really happy with the results. 

I understand that you'll proabably continue with your plan for a bezel, I just wanted to stress how much easier and quicker smoked glass would be (and foolproof).

[Tailgunner]

Adding the brace around the top and sides would give you somewhere to work from in making a $2 bezel. The bezel would then be mounted between the perspex and the supporting brace. You'd only need to allow for the cardboard's thickness to make sure the perspex is flush with the cabinet.

I've photoshopped your picture to give you an idea of how it would look.

[DreamWeb]

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread at all.. but, Tailgunner..  What would you suggest for someone that is just using a television (still inside the case)  How would you go about mounting something like that?

d.

[ginno]

I guess the solution to mounting a bezel to a TV with or without a case is going to be much the same.

I am pretty keen to crete a bezel, I was wondering if anyone has any comments on the floating screen idea like Wienerdog is describing (no bezel just blackness around monitor).
Do people have this setup in their cab and are they happy with it.

I think i will begin by building the bead around the monitor as i need that 1 way or another to fasten the perspex.

My mates are actually trying to convince me to make the bezel out of metal mesh...

keep u all posted

cheers guys

ginno...

[Tailgunner]

DW: The bezel pretty much just touches the monitor or TV's face, Ginno is quite correct in that regard.  My current project will use a 20" PC monitor, and I'm not planning on decasing it. I'll be sure to take pics when I make it's bezel and update the 2$ thread accordingly.

Ginno: The "floating" bezel design can look quite nicely as well. Actually the Dynamo cab I used when doing the 2$ thread came with such a bezel. It was water damaged and lime green to start with so I decided to make something different. There's a thread here in the main forum near the top called "To preserve or to MAME" that features a Double Dragon cab with it's original bezel that should give you an idea how such a bezel might look.

As to doing a 2$ style bezel in metal mesh, I'd do a cardboard version first for a pattern. Once you have that what you make the actual bezel from is only limited by your imagination.

[DreamWeb]

Tailgunner,

That'd be great!  I look forward to seeing your next project!

[ginno]

Hey guys, spent a little time on the bezel setup today,

Just placed the braces in the cab to have a look how much spacing i would have between them and the monitor.

The bottom brace will not be screwed to the cabinet as it is too thin, instead I will tack it to the front of the monitor shelf.



I am leaning towards using 1 piece of cardboard, cutting the screen shape out, wrapping it around the monitor and stapeling a lip to the left and right side of the cabinet (fold lip backwards so that stapels will not be seen)
I can do this easily because there is no vertical curve in the monitor (being a trinitron)

This will still leave a gap between the braces and the bezel as can be seen in this pic:



I was thinking of filling the gap with black foam that will mold to the shape of the cardboard.

I also manageed to solve the fact my piece of perspex was too short by finding a skirting board, the lip on it is the exact distance i needed.



Now with the 2 braces in I can actually visualise the $2 style bezel working as i can now take some measurements and see how to finish the bezel edges around the cabinet and the braces.

Thanks guys, keep you all posted.

ginno...

[SadGamerGeek]

I'm interested to know how this worked out.

Any photos of the finsihed bezel?

Cheers,

Richard

[ginno]

Hi Richard,

The best solution I found was TailGunners $2 Bezel idea.

Basically in the end I made the bezel from cardboard.

Using a sony trinitron meant i could not purchase a plastic bezel as the have a curve vertically whereas the TV does not.

Basically from there it was trial and alot of error,

[SadGamerGeek]

That's very helpful - cheers!

I'm definately going to use some of your ideas to help me with my own bezel & monitor mounting.

Many apologies for the massive delay before my reply! For some reason I didn't get a "thread updated" email, so I assumed there had been no reply.

Thanks again,

Richard