looks great
I make some of the smaller ones once in a while the larger ones are a little harder to work with but doable
I hate buying a complete set when all you need is one. I wish you could buy more partial sets
did you flame polish the edges? can not see in the pic. a dremel with a sanding drum would get those uneven spot

Looks like authentic ball wear to me. Good job.

I need to make a center one for my Super-Flite. How did you do the decal?

I'd be interested in knowing how you made the decal too. I've never had any luck printing decals.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info

No one will ever notice. Great job!

that looks great! How are you sealing the decal to the lexan?

--Jeff

Looks great Tanner.

I've had pretty good luck making replacement plastics for some of my games. For plastic I prefer to use polycarbonate (Lexan) for the replacements.....harder to polish the edges, but incredibly strong. We have a local plastics store called Tap Plastics. They have a scrap bin of leftover plastic that they sell by the pound. Perfect source for the plastics we need...I also use Lexan to make my own plastic protectors. So, how to reproduce the art of a plastic. First I scan the plastic then clean it up in either Photo Shop or sometimes just in Paint. Once I have the art right...or close...I will flip the image over so that it is basically a reverse image. Then I print it to a clear water slide decal sheet. This part will generally take some experimentation. Sometimes I will print it once...left it dry...then run it through the printer again to make the colors denser. The hardest part is getting the "black" dense enough not to let light shine through. This is where a program like Photo Shop comes in handy. You can print the decal once, then duplicate the file to remove all color except the black...or save the file then remove all color except black...then don't save changes. Run it through the printer again just to add more ink to the black. Once I am satisfied with the result, I shoot the decal with Triple Thick to seal the ink and once dry cut it out. Soak the decal in water and apply to the underside of the plastic...this is where the reverse image makes sense...be careful that you get a smooth slide as any wrinkling can create cracks in the paint. Pad the decal dry. Once I'm sure it is dry, I use an air brush to spray a white coat over the decal ...light diffuser.

FWIW, I used Krylon Triple Thick to seal decals (just like a backglass) and had excellent results.

Agree, Triple Thick work fine. One good wet coat works.

So I assume you applied your decal to the underside of the plastic? How did you get it to adhere since the decal glue would be on the underside of the decal? Also, another note about my using clear decals. When I spray the final coat of white, that not only provides diffusion for the plastic, but also provides any "white" necessary...printers in general do not print white...at least not the cheap ones.

Oh crap. I wish I would have thought of that prior to ordering the decal.

Great info Tanner thks. Would you confirm the process you use to cut the laminate pls.

Thks Tanner.

Well this thread inspired me to do something about two playfield upper apron plastics on my High Hand EM which had been broken/repaired for sometime. I cut the laminate using a 6mm straight router bit in my Makita router installed in a table and tidied the edges with a flat file and then 400 wet & dry-dry. Holes drilled very carefully with normal twist drill. I am very happy with result so thks again Tanner for initiating thread and getting me up off my ....!

HHpfplasx2.jpg

Following the comments by Freeplay40 on applying decals to the reverse side of plastics I found the following passage on the Crafty Printer website which I thought is quite helpful:

"Are There Decal Papers With The Adhesive On The Printable Side?
Decal papers do not have adhesive on the printable side. If you feel you would need this type of paper it's probably because you want to apply the decal to be viewed properly on the other side of the glass. This is done by "reversing" or "mirroring" your image when you print it. You will find this in your printer settings. It will actually print your image backwards but when you apply it. the image will show through your glass correctly. This only works with the "clear" decal paper where you do not have the color white in your image".