Author Topic: Cutting trackball hole in plexi-glass? (Read 8289 times)

GSXRMovistar · « **on:** March 21, 2003, 07:40:39 pm »

Quick question for you guys with trackballs under plexi-glass, how did you go about cutting a hole for your trackball in your plexi-glass.

I've used my hole cutter for the push buttons and joystick holes, and the router for trimming the edges and that all looks fine.

But i now need to cut a three inch hole in the middle for the trackball, any ideas on how to get a nice cut?

Thanks.

Silverwind · « **Reply #1 on:** March 21, 2003, 07:57:50 pm »

Quote from: GSXRMovistar on March 21, 2003, 07:40:39 pm

Quick question for you guys with trackballs under plexi-glass, how did you go about cutting a hole for your trackball in your plexi-glass.

I've used my hole cutter for the push buttons and joystick holes, and the router for trimming the edges and that all looks fine.

But i now need to cut a three inch hole in the middle for the trackball, any ideas on how to get a nice cut?

Thanks.

Hmm.. not sure.. i have not done it myself.. but maybe use your drill bit to start a hole.. and then enlarge it with a router?

If you have a scrap to practice on that would be preferable.. as I have not tried this.. anyone else??

bionicbadger · « **Reply #2 on:** March 21, 2003, 11:01:53 pm »

I'm in the middle of constructing my cabinet now. What I did was drill a hole same size as my buttons to start, then used a jig-saw with a plastic cutting blade to cut within about 1/8" of my trackball hole edge and used a dremel to sand around the last little bit. I guess you could use a router too if you used it for your edges.

Warborg · « **Reply #3 on:** March 22, 2003, 12:02:45 am »

Quote from: GSXRMovistar on March 21, 2003, 07:40:39 pm

Quick question for you guys with trackballs under plexi-glass, how did you go about cutting a hole for your trackball in your plexi-glass.

I've used my hole cutter for the push buttons and joystick holes, and the router for trimming the edges and that all looks fine.

But i now need to cut a three inch hole in the middle for the trackball, any ideas on how to get a nice cut?

Thanks.

Well, I used 1/8" black plexi for my CP top, and all I used was a 3" wood hole-saw... I just cut through using little pressure, with a board on the underside for support...

IG-88 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 22, 2003, 12:41:42 am »

If I were to do it, and if my hole-saw has a pilot bit, and most do, I would drill a hole in 2 pieces of scrap 3/8 plywood (or something thin) the same size as my hole-saw pilot bit, then drill the small pilot hole in the plexi, then make a plywood plexi plywood "sandwich" clamped tightly together with all 3 holes lined up and drill away. ie. slooowly, watching for overheating

That way your plexi has support on both sides as your saw teeth enter and exit.

RubbrDug · « **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2003, 04:21:08 am »

I agree with the statement above: Use your router for this. Cutting small circles isn't the easiest task, but you can make yourself a helping construction:

1. use a sheet of thin plywood (5mm or so) maybe 20 x 20cm. Drill a hole in the center of it (almost, no need to be accurate here), where your router bit (use a rectangular shaped one with a diamater of about 3 or 4mm) will fit through.

2. Screw the plywood under your router, preferably in a way that you can reach the screws from the upside. Don't allow any parts of the screws to outstand out of the plywood. Routers usually have some holes or whatever is needed to do this. Measure the needed radius from the farest outstanding corner of the bit to the opposite direction and mark the center of the circle.

3. Unscrew the plywood and hammer a short nail from the upside through the center-mark and in the center of your later trackball hole.

[edited: Oops. don't nail in Plexi. Drill a small hole.]

4. Mount the router, and cut the circle in at least five turns.

If you coudn't make a construction where you can reach the mounting screws from the upside: Mount the plywood with nail to the router and press it (hammering isn't so good for your router

) on to the center. Or drill a tiny hole in the center where the nail will fit in.

[edited: same here. don't hammer in plexi. drill a hole]

Before doing all this, check the manual of your router if there isn't already a solution for routing smaller circles. Mine has it.

As an alternative you can use a copy mask and cut the hole out of thick cardboard first. I have little experience with this and my results with copying have never satisfied me, but with a simple circle it should do well.

Try it on some waste material first.

(Hope my english isn't too bad)

RubbrDug

_Iz- · « **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2003, 12:49:12 pm »

Just drill a 3" hole in a piece of 3/4" plywood. Clamp it over or under the plexi in the correct location (depends on where your guide bearing is located on your router bit). Drill a starter hole in the center and use a router with a straight bit + guide bearing to rout out the 3" hole using the hole in the plywood as the guide. Simple!

RubbrDug · « **Reply #7 on:** March 22, 2003, 03:23:48 pm »

Yeah, if you have something to drill holes in any diameter. Then you could also put the plexi between to layers of wood and drill right through (slooooow).

Don't make it 3" - your ball would almost drop through it

GSXRMovistar · « **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2003, 06:38:08 pm »

_Iz-, that was the method i was orignally thinking of, but then how do i go about cutting a nice 3inch hole in the plywood

_Iz- · « **Reply #9 on:** March 22, 2003, 06:50:58 pm »

need a 3" holesaw...

I sure several of you are thinking "Why not just use the 3" holesaw directly on the plexiglass?" Well you could but the router will definitely do a cleaner job and greatly reduce the chance of cracking the plexi.

GSXRMovistar · « **Reply #10 on:** March 23, 2003, 06:48:41 am »

To be extact the hole needs to be slightly smaller than three inches, also i don't fancy buying another cutting bit only to use one. Think i'm gonna try cutting the hole out of a spare piece of MDF, sand it until its correct and then use it as a routing template.

Grasshopper · « **Reply #11 on:** March 23, 2003, 06:58:44 am »

I don't know what router you are using. But the one I bought (Powerdevil from Argos) came with a special attachment for cutting circles. I'm not sure whether it will cut a circle as small as 3 inches but it would be worth checking out.

Another possibility would be to go to a powertools specialist and see whether they can sell you a template for cutting circles of various sizes. Again a bit of a long shot.

dhansen · « **Reply #12 on:** March 23, 2003, 11:09:16 am »

I used my Happs trackball mounting plate as a guide for my router...

Doug

GSXRMovistar · « **Reply #13 on:** March 23, 2003, 03:08:21 pm »

I thought about using the trackball mounting plate but its slightly too big (about 2/8 either side).

RacerX · « **Reply #14 on:** March 23, 2003, 03:27:35 pm »

I just cut a square hole. The mounting plate covers it anyway.

filenabber · « **Reply #15 on:** March 24, 2003, 12:07:01 pm »

Use a hole cutter on the plexi but run the drill BACKWARDS. This will prevent the plexi from cracking. I do this all the time when cutting holes in plexi.

Brian

rampy · « **Reply #16 on:** March 24, 2003, 12:15:07 pm »

I may be off here... and I don't have plexi/lexan over my control panel but...

Isn't there a thing where you can drill a small hole in the center. stick a pencil or dowel in the hole and take a small/thinish flat board thingie that is the appropriate length ( something about pie arred squared or something) and afix a manual cutting device to the end and rotate slowly in a circle to score the circle... rinse and repeat... (something along those lines anyways... YMMV always use a practice piece first)

Also, I've heard of using hot "wire" in the appropriate shape/size to melt through the desired spot... I always wondered if there was a way to heat up a coffeecan or whatever hot enough to melt through the lexan/plexi... although it's probably an unrealistic/dangerous idea and shouldn't be tried by anyone... i'm just riffing here.

*shrug*

rampy

Smittydc · « **Reply #17 on:** March 24, 2003, 01:50:06 pm »

I'd trace the circle on the plexi, use the router to get "close" to the line, then use a dremel sander to get it perfect.

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #18 on:** March 24, 2003, 03:14:47 pm »

How do I add a jpg of my trackball hole results to this thread?

rampy · « **Reply #19 on:** March 24, 2003, 03:22:13 pm »

Code: [Select]


[img]http://www.domainname.com/imagname.gif[/img]

seaner · « **Reply #20 on:** March 25, 2003, 11:08:45 pm »

I only had to cut 2-1/4" but I just bought a wood hole saw for it and didn't even bother using the drill press. I had the plexi attached to the pine panel and just gave it a nice easy drilling with my dewalt cordless. These saws are worth the money.. probably around $5-$10.. you never know when you'll need to go installing potlights or something

GSXRMovistar · « **Reply #21 on:** March 26, 2003, 06:36:15 am »

Still gonna try my mdf template idea first (hopefully this weekend), but if that fails, this little item but be useful

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?ts=77590&id=12620

GSXRMovistar · « **Reply #22 on:** April 02, 2003, 04:52:23 pm »

Well my MDF template idea didn't work too well, so I managed to purchase a 3inch hole-cutter. I first made a hole in a large piece of MDF and then clamped the MDF to my plexi-glass to use as a guide, the drill bit for the hole-cutter was quite large so I used a smaller bit first to create a pilot hole, but as I was making the pilot hole I managed to crack the plexi!!! Luckily though the crack was only about 2inches long and the 3inch hole cut round it.

And being a little cheeky I also managed to return the hole-cutter to B&Q and get a refund as it was still in perfect condition.

I

Cue-Ball · « **Reply #23 on:** April 02, 2003, 05:24:41 pm »

You guys are making this WAY to difficult on yourselves. As long as you're not using real "plexiglas" (ie: using lexan, lucite, or other similar material) you can easily cut through with a normal 3" hole saw. This is what I used on my control panel and it worked perfectly. I just drilled through the lucite and 3/4" MDF at the same time, then i made the hole in the MDF larger later on (so that the trackball would fit). The hole in the lucite came out perfect. I took about 30 seconds to sand the edges of the hole with fine grit sandpaper and that's it. Very easy, very quick, great results.

MameFan · « **Reply #24 on:** April 02, 2003, 05:32:30 pm »

For small holes, drill slightly small then use a round hole file to smooth the edges.

For big holes, drill with the appropriate tools above, then sand the edges smooth with a fine foam filled sanding block (with the protective layers still on the plexi to keep from scratching the surfaces.

Foam sanding blocks also work great to give a frosted (large grain) or polished (small grain) smooth edge to your plexi! I did a remake of an Asteroids coctail top with a sheet of plexi instead of glass. Turned out well.

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #25 on:** April 02, 2003, 06:59:48 pm »

I agree, it's pretty simple really. The results I got are my favorite detail on the panel.

My plan of attack:

1. Clamped my 1/4" lexan to my 3/4" particle board
2. Drilled thru both pieces with a 3" hole saw in a drill press
3. Overheated the press and waited forever for it to come "back online" - next time I'd go slower

4. With both pieces still clamped I ran a router along the inside of the hole using the particle board as a guide for the bearing. This gave me a beautiful (but frosty) rounded edge.
5. I then sanded it with 400 grit paper to make it super smooth (but still cloudy).
6. This is my favorite part- I buffed the sweet bejezzus out of it with a plexi polishing compound and a cloth polishing wheel in my drill. I was left mesmerized by the shiny glass like finish. See pics below. My only regret is leaving the carriage bolts visible *DOH*

GSXRMovistar · « **Reply #26 on:** April 03, 2003, 02:19:31 am »

Pixelhugger that trackball mounting looks really professional, very nice job. Do you have pics of the rest of your cab?

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #27 on:** April 03, 2003, 07:27:17 pm »

Thanks for the compliment. The cabinet is still a work in progress. Very slow progress. Here's a pic of the rest of the control panel, though. When finished, the cabinet will be called "Mission Control" after a local childhood arcade. The control panel was stage 1, and was completed about a year ago

Hopefully I'll be announcing the stage 2 soon.

Cue-Ball · « **Reply #28 on:** April 03, 2003, 07:43:45 pm »

Beautiful work, Pixelhugger. Very clean, uncluttered design. I like!

Now get busy and finish the rest of the cabinet.

hyiu · « **Reply #29 on:** April 04, 2003, 12:23:26 am »

wow !!!!

very very beautiful trackball...
very cool panel....

I hope mine turns out as well....

GSXRMovistar · « **Reply #30 on:** April 04, 2003, 01:59:10 am »

That looks really nice, very slick job. Couple of questions for you

1) How thick is the plexi-glass you have used, and does it scratch easy with use?

2) Carriage bolts, i see you have four bolts on you panel in the same locations as i was planning, does the bolt/nut protrude from the underside or have you sunk them into the word?

Thanks.

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #31 on:** April 04, 2003, 02:45:38 pm »

It's 1/4" Lexan from Home Depot. The bolts do protrude on the underside of the panel. I used a washer beneath the nut to ensure it stayed nice and tight and didn't eat into the particle board. I did have to trim off the bolts once they were installed cause they're 4" long or so. (I used a hack saw w/metal cutting blade). If I were to do it again I would countersink the mounting plate and the carriage bolts into the particle board to hide them beneath the CP artwork. Of course then the artwork would sag a bit into the recession-since the heads of the bolts would stick up 1/8" or so above the plate, so I'd have to fill that - maybe w/ a very thin a piece of cardboard.

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #32 on:** April 04, 2003, 02:51:17 pm »

Ooops forgot to finish reply...
Nope it doesn't scratch easily...except when running power tools over the surface (router, jigsaw) which leave slight but visible traces along the surface. I'm sure that could be avoided. Also, the plastic polishing compound can remove anything, however deep gouges would require so much polishing that the surface would get a bit wavy. Anyhow, it's pretty scratch resistant. I couldn't be happier.


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Author Topic: Cutting trackball hole in plexi-glass? (Read 8289 times)

MameFan