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How can I smooth the trackball plexiglass hole? (ouch! it's sharp)

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sofakng:
Yup, I remember that thread.

The problem is that I already have my plexiglass attached to the control panel.  All of my buttons are in place, etc.  If I was going to re-route the plexiglass (with that chafner/bullnose bit) I would need to remove ALL of my buttons, right?

If I don't need to remove all my buttons to re-route the plexiglass hole please let me know but I'm thinking with all the buttons on the control panel the router wouldn't have a flat surface to ride on.

So... I'm looking for something simple I can do just to smooth to edge a little bit.  Is regular, 400 grit sandpaper my best bet? ...or would a file work better?

Would a dremel work better than sandpaper? (I don't have one, but perhaps I could get one)

Maybe I should use one of those drill-sanding bits?  (those round bits for a drill with sandpaper attached to it)

Witchboard:
I would do it by hand.  Just drop your trackball and get some fine grit sandpaper and run it across the sharp edge a couple of times to smooth it down.  If you use a drill or dremel, it's possible you'll dip it.  Those things may not be very powerful, but plexi isn't all that tough and it will sand faster than you expect.

patrickl:
If you sand or file it then you'll still have a frosted look. You can then polish that. I think that's what the dremel was used for, but I don't remember the whole thread. It might be pretty hard to sand/file it and have a consistent bevel.

Using a router would be difficult with the controls attached yes. You could have routed the hole before you attached the controls though ::) Or take the controls off again. You don't seem to learn that you need to double check things before you do it  ;D  On the other hand, I'm still quadruple checking myself and I'm not getting anything built  :-[

sofakng:
You live and learn I guess...

If I did it over I'm not sure I would have changed anything though... I've spent sooo much money on this project that even another $20 (for a chafner/bullnose bit) seems too much.

Two questions about sanding:

1) What grit sandpaper should I use?

2) Should I only sand the flat (inside) part of the trackball hole, or should I sand the edges of the hole as well?  

I'm just a bit worried about having the sandpaper scratch the rest of the plexi.

FractalWalk:
I would not use a power tool for this.


The easiest way is to remove the plexi. But is you want to leave it intact,  then with the trackball removed (leaving just the hole) use a sheet of sandpaper (I'd use 200 grit) by hand and go along the flat inside rim of the hole.  This may be hard to do , depending upon how you cut out the panel.

It should only take a minute or so to get it smooth. Then carefully sand the egde applying the paper at around a 45 degree angle.  Be very careful with this part as you can easily scratch the surface around the hole.

As was stated before, when you are done, you will have a frosted look, which I think looks OK. Or if you don't like it you can buff it out, but again, this may be difficult without removing it first.

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