Securing Plexiglass on the CP

[lettuce]

Have add plexiglass to my CP, now the majority of it is secure by using the push buttons, but on the outer edges the plexiglass lifts slightly, what is the best option is securing the edges, just by using screws?, if so do i just drill through the plexiglass, or is this not advised as it may crack it??, or would another option be using self tapping wood screws and just start screwing them throught the plexiglass or would this cause it to crack?

[tommy]

Bolts or screws work depending on the look you want, it WILL crack if you drill right in it with screws most times, pre-drill it first.

[MYX]

Do you have a overlay on the CP? If so (and this will sound like a pain in the @$$), but drill, NOT HAMMER a hole for a small bolt. The problem that arrises is that (and I am sure that you are aware of this now) but since you have taken the plastic protection off of the plexi, every spec of dust on the known universe has been attracted to your it. If you drill a hole, you are directly introducing dust to the CP. Worse is that in the super tiny air layer between the CP and plexi will by stupid nature suck up some of that dust, so there will be a light dust haze around the drilled hole. Here is the pain part I was speaking about... Take all the buttons out (eek)lift the plexi to re clean it and clean the CP, then re button it.

Ok, as to the lifting. you want the CP as clean as possible, so go to the corners and come in about an inch. If you have a lip around the edge, you will need to decide to put it inside the CP box or outside. You can get a 1/4 carrage bolt and paint it black (spraypaint works great) Drill your hole. Now here is the thing about carrage bolts. they have the square insert thing that holds them steady. If you tightened your bolt using a 1/4 in . hole, the square on the carrage bolt will crack the plexi. I found a widening drill bit at Home depot. It is about 5/8 around (1/4 in shaft on the drill side) At the end it makes a cone shape, but it is notched so it will take away the surface. using light pressure, drill with the widener untill you get a width that will take the square, but not so wide as to be bigger than the carrage bolt.

Once you have all that done, clean as I mentioned above and enjoy your plexi (that is no longer going ANYWHERE).

[TOK]

If you want it to look authentic, use carriage bolts around the edges. If you don't care about that, you can get black allen head bolts at someplace like Sears hardware that have a low profile and small heads.

[wrench]

here's a link to another thread with what I did to mine.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=46432.msg444429#msg444429