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Glass vs acrylic

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Benevolance:
I've noticed that people have used glass or acrylic variously for their arcade cabinets screens. And that the sheets are sometimes tinted, sometimes not. My questions are many-fold: under what circumstances would I choose acrylic over glass, or vice-versa? Why would I choose tinted over non-tinted? And if I do get the glass/acrylic tinted, how much tint is appropriate?

Malenko:
plexiglass is cheaper and more durable against breakage.
glass is more durable then plexi in terms of scratching though, it takes more to scratch glass.

Most people tint the glass to hide the bezel better, or hide screen burn.
You dont want to tint the glass too much, the darker it is, the brighter the screen has to be.

I had glass on my MAME cab because it came with glass, if I didnt have the glass I would have used plexiglass because I wouldnt know where to go local to have glass cut.


hope I've been at least a little help

somunny:
If you have a "Yellow Pages" around look under 'Glass' and you can find a place to cut glass for you.  I don't remember it being that expensive for a custom cut piece.  Maybe 30 or 40 bucks.

Benevolance:
Fortunately, I have places nearby where I can buy cut glass, plexi, or lexan.

Is glass generally the preferred way to go then? I would imagine scratch resistance is more of an issue than breakage.

I know often in arcades, I've been guiltly of touching the screens as a spectator, to point out something to the guy playing or whatever. I've never really noticed whether that left scratches or not. In my head, I picture acrylic as being tough enough to withstand that, though...

So how much tint is enough tint? Are we talking 10% or 50% I'm using a 20" CRT for my display, if the monitor makes a difference in determining appropriate tint.

Twinpanther:
It's funny.  I was looking into 1/4" glass for my rotating panel design yesterday.  For 24" diameter the local glass shop wanted $141 non-tempered and $152 Tempered.  24" square glass is $31 tempered.  Can't wrap my head around that myself.  Needless to say I'm going with Acrylic and cutting it myself.  Front Panel, CP and Marquee acrylic delivered is under $50.  Acrylic doesn't have the scratch resistance I wanted but it should do the job on my first cabinet.

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