My Belly Glass Project

[arbycoffee]

Yup,


Canon makes a white blacklite film, I use a layer behind the translowsave I have printed on, the print dencity is for wachine off and just a shade on the dark side, when lights on the white film defusse it so as not to burn out the picture.


The real thing are 1 or 2 mil. plastic one side sticky, like what the sign makers use on your windows. A friend of mine, owns a sign co. has the machine that does that stuff, cost would be high bucks, unless you are doing 1,000s

[arbycoffee]

all the models I have done, not just nets, 6 screws hold the frame to the front, I take out the screws and flex the old glass and edge it out, the new goes in the same way. You shouldn't need to unhook any wires. The frame moves back a bunch, when puting in new just snug the bottom middle one lightly and with your palms on the in and out sid move the new glass for alinement, I alway put the machine in error for the most ****z blinking.

[arbycoffee]

Laz,

Alinement problems, but if you want a two D efect this is one way to do it with in mind using the light areas to complament the deed.

You don't have white canon backlite film ? Try a 20 or 28 pound very white paper to use in side.

Question here How long will this paper stay white and not change to off white as it is hit by lights ? I would think the better the paper the longer the white life.

I answered two in one, wow I be hot now

[Lazarus]

Arby I think you mean gwarzin. :-?

[arbycoffee]

Oh hell, just ruinned my perfect record for 2005. :cry:
You are right.

I have a hard time remembering my wifes name too, That why I just call her "Boss Honey" I know where to kiss up, I have a present for her tonite, maybe she will start talking to me.

It is a carved egg withh gold & silver inlays, I always keep a present in back up for when I screw up, that way I don't eat fish Azzholes for supper.

IRemember I lived this long know where to kiss. :roll:

[gwarzin]

Been experimenting all day. Here's what's worked out the best:

Print on translucent backlit film. Use colors and saturations that look best under normal room lighting without back lighting.

Print a second copy.

Let them dry for about an hour. (Time based on Red River film and Canon inks.) At this point the ink is almost dry. You can place one copy on top of another and position them so they line up perfectly. But, while the ink feels dry to the touch, it is not quite totally dry. Once the 2 pieces are perfectly aligned, press them together. There is just enough tackiness to lock them in position.

Put some weight on them for a couple of hours to help bind them together.

You've now got a graphic that looks good in normal light and has rich saturated colors when lit from behind.


In retrospect it should not have been a surprise that a double layer of printing fixed the wash out problem. Paper movie posters that are backlit in theater lobbies are usually printed on both sides. The back side is printed in mirror image. This keep them from looking washed out when lit from behind. (Typically when they print a run of movie posters, they back print the first part of the print run. These are the ones that go to theaters. The rest of the run is single printed and goes to stores and other places that resell the poster or use them in promotions.)

You can't do quite the same thing with backlit film because you can't print on both sides (the back doesn't take ink very well). And, aligning the printed images would be near impossible on a typical home inkjet. But, using 2 sheets of film and aligning the images after the fact seems to work quite well.

Right now I'm letting the ink dry for 24 hours and I'll let you know tomorrow if everything is still going as well as it appears to have gone today. But I did stick in on the machine for a few minutes just to see how it looked, and it was by far the best result I've had. Actually looked professional.

[arbycoffee]

COOL BEANERS!

[gwarzin]

Arby,

Have you found any way to get around the 23.39 inch limit that's built into the Canon i9900 printer?

The reel strips are about 28" long. Do you just print them in 2 parts?

[arbycoffee]

You can't get pass it with the software that's out there.
Two parts is the only way I have found. pain in the butz.

[gwarzin]

Here are the latest update on my project:

Belly Glass

Previously I reported the best way I found to get rich saturated colors (and still have them look good under normal room lighting with the machine turned off) was to print 2 copies of the film and sandwich them together. I was going to try using the ink itself to hold the sheets together. That idea didn't work because the inks dries too fast and that means that the top of the page (printed first) will be drier than the bottom of the page. So I found it best to let the sheets dry for several hours. At this point there is still just enough tack to keep the sheets from sliding around after you line them up. But, they will come apart with very little force being applied. So, to keep them aligned, I use a strip of Scotch Double Sided Photo Mounting Tape along one edge, in an area that will be hidden by the belly frame. So far that has worked great.

Backlit Film

The Red River film works MUCH better than the Kodak film. On the Kodak anytime there is heavy black it bleeds into the surrounding colors, making for a fuzzy line. Printing on the Red River is very sharp.

Reel Strips

Made my first reel strips. Problem is that real reel strips are silk screened and one of the layers is opaque, blocking light from showing through in areas where it shouldn't. Doing that on backlit film is a problem.

This probably would be less of a problem on machines that have front lighting on the reels. I'm using a Zett for this project. All the reel illumination comes from behind.

So the first set I did looked great... until I put them on the machine. You could see all the underlying plastic framework of the reels. Again, I doubt that this would be a problem if the reels also had front lighting.

So I am now printing my second attempt. This time I am printing the reel strips with a black background. You might think this would look strange, but it actually looks quite good with the rest of the artwork. They look a lot like the reels on a Neo Planet. This should hide the reel framework and allow the light to show through the symbols only.

More to follow after the ink dries and I mount the new strips.

[TR]

You can't get pass it with the software that's out there.
Two parts is the only way I have found. pain in the butz.

I think you can get around this by changing the "printing type" to banner printing. I've got an smaller format i850 printer with the same maximum paper length limit, and have tried this and it seems to work. You get to this thru printer preferences, on the menu called set-up page. Change from normal to banner printing. Keep the page size at normal size (i.e 8.8 x 11 or whatever). Now the printer accepts the full length of banner.

What software you are using to create the reels? I've tried MS Home Publishing and it seems to work (at least on regular paper...have not tried backlit film yet).

[Davis]

There is a program out there that supposedley will allow you to prin in banner mode on printers that dont normally allow it. Its called Poster, and the version I got off emule is 7.9e. Might check it out and see if it helps at getting past that barrier! Im ready for this damn printer to get here. NO MORE KINKOS!!!

[gwarzin]

I don't think either of the suggestions in the 2 above emails will work with a Canon i9900.

1) There is no "banner" setting under page set-up in the i9900 printer driver. So the suggestion in the 1st post won't work.

2) The Poster program requires you to set the printer to "banner" mode. This won't work - see item #1. If you don't have a banner mode on your printer I think it just prints on separate pieces of paper that you have to assemble.

I have done a pretty good search of the Internet for a solution. So far all I have found is a lot of people complaining about Canon's choice to restrict the i9900 from printing banners. Canon's tech support varifies that this is the case. So far I have found NO ONE reporting that they have found a solution.

Most people are guessing that this was a political move on Canon's part. Some suggest that it's because Canon doesn't make banner paper and doesn't want you to buy anyone elses paper. Others say it's so professionals can't use one of Canon's cheap wide body printers and have to buy their more expensive pro versions. Canon tech support says it's becasue of paper jam problems. Who knows?

In any case, the only thing the i9900 can't do on a pachislo is print the reel strips in one long piece. Not a problem. There is already one seam on a reel, who's going to notice 2? Besides, having a 2 part strip gives you a little more wiggle room when trying to get everything to align.

[gwarzin]

THe black reel art turned out great. I mounted one half of one strip just to check it out. I'll wait for the ink to dry 24 hours before I mount the rest of the strips.

Today I figured out how to take out the reel glass and the small illuminated panel at the top of the machine. So, I'll spend the rest of the day working on the artwork for those 2 panels.

[arbycoffee]

Fun, isn't it ?, but a butz load of work

[Davis]

how did you get balck on the trips? Did you choose to color them black then add the graphcis on top of a black background in the photo software?

[gwarzin]

Fun, isn't it ?, but a butz load of work

Yes. Changing a belly glass is a piece of cake. It's doing the reels and all the other panels that takes all the time. If I was selling these things, I thing I'd be looking for machines that I could customize by just changing the belly glass.

[gwarzin]

how did you get balck on the trips? Did you choose to color them black then add the graphcis on top of a black background in the photo software?

Yes. I just put a black background in the original artwork.

[Davis]

great idea, never thought of that! I bet it looks just like the Neo planett. Good job!

[TANK]

Found this on a pinball web site. They raved about the service!! these are reverse printed decals you can have custom printed with your art then just stick them to clear plexi or to translucent material for reels. if you went with the larger image32x32 you should be able to print a whole machine or two worth of decals for $45.

http://mamemarquees.com

hoped this might help: tank