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Perfect Lexan alignment over trackball

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QuarterJunkie:
FWIW,

I thought I would share my mistake and realization so others may benefit from it and not make the same mistake I did. This may be a no-brainer for a lot of people, but it was not for me and others too, I'm sure. To achieve a perfect alignment of your lexan over the trackball, cut this hole 1st. Then, with it applied over the trackball, clamp it and then route the outside and cut the remaining holes. I mistakenly routed the outside first and found out the hard way that I now need to be precise in my cut for the trackball ! No need for precision if I had done it the other way around...

My $.02 for the day...

 

ids:
I was thinking of doing a few scattered button holes, insert the buttons and tighten really well, then do all the other holes and the outside last.  Hopefully that will take care of the lexan/plexi.  No idea how to align artwork - maybe that's why space themes etc are so popular  ;D

fatfingers:

I also routed my edges first and later discovered it would have been a whole lot easier if I had done the trackball first.

As for the artwork, I just applied my control panel overlay and I found the best way to do it was to place it exactly where you want it, then clamp the artwork in place and apply from the non-clamped side to the clamped side.  As soon as there's enough space on the applied side to clamp it, then put clamps on that side and remove the clamps on the non-applied side.  Since everything is clamped, there's no real chance that you will get any drift or misalignment in your artwork.

Good luck!

mountain:

--- Quote from: ids on February 26, 2008, 01:42:31 pm ---I was thinking of doing a few scattered button holes, insert the buttons and tighten really well, then do all the other holes and the outside last.  Hopefully that will take care of the lexan/plexi.  No idea how to align artwork - maybe that's why space themes etc are so popular  ;D

--- End quote ---

Use the wood control panel as a template to cut the plexi using a flush trim bit. To align the artwork after the plexi and wood is cut, lay the plexi over the art and line it up. Then take an exacto blade and cut out three or four button holes on opposite sides of the panel. Place the art and plexi on the panel and line up the holes and insert the buttons.   :cheers:

leapinlew:

--- Quote from: QuarterJunkie on February 26, 2008, 01:34:54 pm ---FWIW,

I thought I would share my mistake and realization so others may benefit from it and not make the same mistake I did. This may be a no-brainer for a lot of people, but it was not for me and others too, I'm sure. To achieve a perfect alignment of your lexan over the trackball, cut this hole 1st. Then, with it applied over the trackball, clamp it and then route the outside and cut the remaining holes. I mistakenly routed the outside first and found out the hard way that I now need to be precise in my cut for the trackball ! No need for precision if I had done it the other way around...

--- End quote ---

Thanks for sharing! For anyone who doesn't know what he's talking about - here is a pic of my control panel before I trimmed it up. Notice I cut the trackball hole, and test fitted it before I trimmed up the edges. This is so you have some wiggle room cutting the hole.

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