Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: crashwg on February 08, 2004, 01:38:26 pm
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Does anyone know where I can fine a similar material to plexi but black and "light blocking"?
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smoked plexiglass seems to be the material of choice. i dont know where it is but there was a thread where someone posted comparison of smoked vs regular and smoked made it look way better. as for where to get it, im not sure. home depot maybe?
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don't know about that (light blocking i think would be the deal breaker anyhow) but how bout painting the back. i think that looks real slick. and if you get enough coats it should block light real well. you could even back it with heavy black poster vboard after you paint it.
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^^ Ill vouch for that
Get a piece of plexi, spray 2-3 coats of black onto the back surface. If thats still not dark enough to block the light, spray a coat or 2 of the grey 'primer' stuff, thats quite a bit hevier
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umm am i missing something? were talking about plexi for going over the monitor bezel. you can see through paint??
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umm am i missing something? were talking about plexi for going over the monitor bezel. you can see through paint??
I gues you are missing something :P . He asked for "black and light blocking". I wonder what the application will be though ...
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THats how I interpreted it, as light-blocking black opaque plexi. Ive seen it for sale on sites like McMaster-Carr and other materials sites, but never in person at a home depot for example.
Tinted plexi ive seen at stores, and that would seem a bit more common at a hardware/home store
(heck i just took a quick look at mcmaster.com and you can get sheets in opaque Black Blue Gray Green Red White & Yellow; 12x24x1/4" is $10 about)
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Black opaque plexiglass should be available from/through your local glass dealer.
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I probably should have been a little more specific. Maybe what I want it for would be a good thing to know.
I'm going to be building my own DDR hard pads real soon and what I want to do is have a piece of plexi/lexan on top, then the printed arrow, then a piece of light blocking plastic under that with a pattern cut out of it so when I put a light inside the pad it will only light up the cut out parts.
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For that I guess you could also use a bit of overhead sheet printed with a laserprinter (sandwiched between two layers of plexi/lexan). Then you can easily mask out any pattern you want. I guess a laserprint would block light pretty well too and it's much easier to mask a pattern with it then with opaque plexi.
But using paint on the underside of another layer of transparent plexi seems a pretty good option too.
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dunno if you've found your material for this purpose yet, but after you posted about what you wanted it for, I immediately thought of adhesive-backed vinyl floor tile. You would either stick it to the plexi, OR buy black tile and fasten it in some fashion to the plexi. Ya folla?
Like I said, dunno if this is too late.
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Crashwg, sorry for the dumb question but why not just cut the pattern out in aluminium foil and then glue the foil to the plastic? You can probably find some in the kitchen right now to try...
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Funny enough, I think alluminum foil will be the best solution, and a pretty cheap one too. I like cheap ;D Thanks everyone for the great suggestions though.
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I use smoked (actually called amber) plexi and love the way it looks.
Here are some pictures:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=16642&start=0 (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=16642&start=0)
These pictures actually make the plexi look more see through than it is (when the monitor is off) because of the angle and way the camera picks up light. In person, you can barely see through it, but as you can see in the screenshot - the image is quite brilliant.