Main > Main Forum

Using smoked plexiglas - Hey RandyT!

Pages: << < (10/20) > >>

RandyT:


--- Quote from: Carsten Carlos on February 18, 2003, 04:05:23 am ---I wanna go with smoked glass, too (1/4") - but wonder if I should use real glass or just plexi?

Wouldn't it be better to clean and less sensitive to scratches, maybe even clearer to view as plexi?
I noticed most of the cabs (all?) used plexi, but I guess this was more to avoid getting broken if anyone has lost to often in the game. :)

--- End quote ---

Yes and Yes.  But there are a couple things to consider.  The type of glass with the properties you are looking for is likely to be expensive.

The other thing is that this acrylic material probably lets through about %25 of the light that enters it without a substantial color shift.  Finding glass with these properties could be difficult at best.

You also would probably want to make sure that the glass is tempered for safety reasons.


--- Quote ---
Last but not least, anyone tried brownish instead of grayish tint?

--- End quote ---

Haven't tried it, but don't recommend it.  The best case scenario is a material that approximates what is known as a "neutral density filter".  This cuts the frequency of light evenly across the visible spectrum as not to impart changes in color.  The gray material is much closer to having this property than the brown.

RandyT

Carsten Carlos:


--- Quote ---The other thing is that this acrylic material probably lets through about %25 of the light that enters it without a substantial color shift.  Finding glass with these properties could be difficult at best.

--- End quote ---

Guess I'll need an expert here in Germany to find out about this and what to buy. The price isn't that much of a problem (or is it really expensive?), I spend so much time on this cab that I want it to be as good as it can!

Tempered glass is this security glass that doesn't break in sharp pieces, right? Well, you never know, although I wonder if this is availabe as gray smoked. :-[

The Man:


--- Quote from: Carsten Carlos on February 18, 2003, 04:05:23 am ---Last but not least, anyone tried brownish instead of grayish tint?

--- End quote ---

My DigDug cocktail plexi is more brown than gray and it looks great.

TM

Carsten Carlos:


--- Quote ---Mine is 1/8" thick, but is very well supported.  I have it sitting on a shelf, runners going full length both sides, and it is kept from moving because it is trapped behind the marquee speaker board and the rear of the control panel.  I have a Happ bezel behind it, so that also adds extra support.

This method of installing the front glass seems to be common on arcade machines, and the best part is that you don't need to mess with any tools or hardware to remove it.  Flip up the control panel and you can have the plexi and bezel off in seconds.  Here are a couple of screen grabs from my cad file to show what I'm talking about (the pink in the first shot is the plexi).

You can see the plexi supports in some of the photos here:  http://www.oscarcontrols.com/unnamed/.





--- End quote ---


What I wonder (and this is my current problem on my cab) what do you do with the small gap between the glas and the panel? I'm still searching for a good solution that I still can easy change panels, have no gap, and can put the glass as near to the panel as possible.


OSCAR:

Heh, sure Carsten, go ahead and point out my short-cut...  :)

The gap isn't very noticable when you have a black control panel and black bezel, but here is the "proper" way to do it:

There is a retainer that should go on the back of the control panel.  To do this correctly, your front glass should stop just above the back edge of your control panel so the retainer lays flat against the glass.  On my cab I didn't want to fabricate a retainer (read as "lazy" :) ) so I moved the glass ledge beyond the control panel so the rear of the control would lay up against the glass.

To replicate the original design faithfully, you would have to make fairly accurate cuts and bend the retainer to the correct angle as to not put too much pressure against the glass.  If the angle on the retainer is too shallow, you would still have a gap...  I chose to avoid the trial and error process on my project, but if you have the means and skill to do this correctly, then it would be well worth it!

Here are a couple of shots of my converted Main Event cab.








Pages: << < (10/20) > >>

Go to full version