Backlit film

[Lddrizzt]

Ok all you customizers, I believe I am ready attempt the use of backlit film for a special belly glass that has been requested. We have a golgo 13 in the store and a couple of the local Army National Guard guys would like to get it but with a National Guard/ Sniper theme belly. I would like to do a nice job on this one as these guys deserve it.
WHat I need is an inexpensive place to get some backlit film. Our closest Kinkos is over an hour away and I would actually like to do this myself. So any links to some film would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[RKnarr01]

kinkos sells backlit film?

[arbycoffee]

http://www.redriverpaper.com/

not cheap, follow the info sheet inside the for your printer

[Lddrizzt]

Kinkos will print on backlit for you. They don't sell it as far as I know.

[arbycoffee]

for just one kinkos would be cheaper

[gwarzin]

What's the make and model of printer that you'll be using? Different printers may require different types of film.

[arbycoffee]

I am using a Canon i900 17 x 19 micro inkjet printer, the film come with a sheet telling you what to try with your type printer.

[dlowrey]

Kinkos is over an hour away

You can submit stuff to Kinkos electronically, then have them mail/FedEx it back to you.

Since this is a custom job, I would call them first....

[arbycoffee]

Being it is one, I would say Kinkos too, You are going to waste a few sheets just getting the seting right and how dark you want it. My first one took me five shoots to get it right, and still I find I will do some over at different setting because of the amount of blues or reds.

[Lddrizzt]

Well my choices of printers are an HP 2500 series Inkjet, or my girl that works in the printshop at the office has a number of color copiers/printers available to us. She is the one who came up with the paper that looks good. I asked her what type of paper that was that she finally decided on and she told me that it was only a smooth grade 21-22lb white, nothing special.
I really don't want to go through the expense and hassle of going to the kinkos. Plus if it comes out well on our own then we will use the backlit film on more than one.

[Toonces]

I use backlit film I got from eBay. Most I have paid is $45 for a 36" X 90' roll. The last one I got is a 7mil thick backlit film. The other roll I have is 5mil and it works great. With a 36" wide roll I just cut 8.5" swaths across and then in half. each cut gets me 2 glasses. I figure I probably get about 200 glasses on a 90' roll and with mistakes and color matching, about 5 good belly glasses :-) Seriously I probably get about 100 or so of usable glasses due to mistakes, etc. I also use the same stuff for arcade machines. I use a canon i9900 printer. does 13 X 19 out of the box.

[arbycoffee]

I do the same, ecept, I use per cut from Red River.

[Webdude]

The thing I do not hear about is the art work. Which I think would be the hardest thing to do of the project. You can make a large image small but you can't make a small image large. Trying the find an image large enough to fill a belly glass would be hard. Secondly I would use real glass instead of Plexiglas. Really glass would show the beauty of the art work a lot better. People don't realize how inexpensive glass is. ItÂ’s not much more money then Plexiglas. And yes Toonces is right; you better plan on printing 3 to 4 copies of the artwork to get it right. People do not realize when you get in to graphics that your monitor need calibrated with your printer to make the colors come out the same. In other words the blue on your screen is not the same blue on your printer. When you add light to the back of the art work the colors are going to be 3 to 4 shades lighter then the original. Also make sure that you use the right ink for the job. Just my two cents worth of information.

[Webdude]

Now if you really want to add class to your machine why not try stain glass?

[Tulsa]

Most people are doing these mods to sell the machines not for personal use as such. How well would real glass and/or stained glass hold up to the shipping process? With stained glass you would also have to diffuse the light somehow to avoid a massive hotspot since these lights are so close to the glass itself.

[gwarzin]

Funny you should mention stained glass. A custom that I started planning a few weeks back is called "God" - no, not the Million God that you've probably seen. This is based on a $49 Syscom Hanabi and is designed to be more of a work of art, rather than a real playing machine. The idea is that you "play God" with the world. The reels show different biblical references like "plague of locusts", etc. The most common symbol, the "replay" is going to be "rain" "rain", and "more rain". The idea is to get into a bonus round and see if you can make it rain for 40 days and 40 nights. The top 4th reel is going to be messages from the burning bush.

But, back to your suggestion of using stained glass... The belly glass is going to be made of stained glass. I did a little work in stained glass about 20 years ago. But I don't have any of the tools any more. So I asked for some stained glass tools for Christmas, just so I could do this project. In a few hours, when the rest of the family shows up for Christmas dinner, I'll see if Santa came through with the goods

.

[gwarzin]

Most people are doing these mods to sell the machines not for personal use as such. How well would real glass and/or stained glass hold up to the shipping process? With stained glass you would also have to diffuse the light somehow to avoid a massive hotspot since these lights are so close to the glass itself.

My mods are for personal use. But, if I was going to ship a machine that I did in stained glass, I think I'd just pop off the belly glass, frame and all, and pack it separately for shipping.

To diffuse the light, I thought I'd just put a sheet of translucent acetate behind the glass, maybe just a piece of the backlit film.

[Tulsa]

I would hope even if most of your mods are for personal use that you'd consider marketing your GOD slot. In one simple concept, you've managed to bridge the gap between religion and gambling! 8-) You've more than doubled your market place! :grin:

[gwarzin]

I don't know how well it will go down with the religious market. They might think that having to hit Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost to get the jackpot is just a little sacrilegious.

[gwarzin]

In fact, especially since it's Christmas today, I'm surprised that God hasn't struck me down already just for thinking about this machine, let alone actually building it.