1982 Sega Star Trek Captains' Chair Restoration

Thanks guys. Little to bright for my tastes. May try and dim them behind some smoke acrylic one day.

Yesterday; I got the xy pattern generator working. I was able to plot the images to the oscope. It appears that A9 may not be toggling... so will begin debugging soon. All the patterns work except the combo crosshatch.
 
Texas Pinball Festival is rapidly approaching; so I needed to get this machine to a completed state - or at least the appearance it is complete. Friday I took the frame of the canopy to Metalink (a local shop). Because the frame is nearly 40" long; it wouldn't fit in my sandblasting hood nor more importantly the powder oven I have in the garage. This means I needed to consult a professional to have it sandblasted and powedercoated black.

They have the frame and hope to hear from them sometime this week.

While I waited on the frame; I decided I wanted canopy plastics to have something other than a lot of empty space. At 40" long; there was no way it was going to fit on my 24" laser table. Also; most laser custters top out a 36"... so that was pretty much a non start as well for outsourcing. I decided I was going to go for a sandblasted stenciled look. Out came coreldraw and the following design was the result:


I mirrored the design and split it up into four stenciles that would be combined after laser cutting. I cut the stencils out of 0.02 polystyrene.


I then attempted to sandblast using the ploystrene using some craft stencil spray. It was a disastor... the stencil adhesive spray didn't hold up to the air from the sandblasting gun. I toyed with the idea of creating a metal stencil; but Ken suggested that acrylic would do the job. I didn't really want the cost associated with a plasma cut stencil; so I decided to give the acrylic a shot.

I cut the next stencil out of 0.061 acyrlic. Using the same stencil spray I lightly coated both the acrylic and the canopy window for maximum bonding strength.


I sandblasted the stenciled canopy with aluminum oxide:
 
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After cleaning up sandblasting mess; I decided the etches looked more dirty than intentional; so I went ahead and coated the stencil with some satin white krylon for plastics.


Some maybe asking; could I have simply put paint down avoiding the messy sandblasting. My answer is maybe; but given how poorly any paint sticks to the smooth top of new plastic... I'd say the sandblasting step is likely manditory to ensure the paint sticks.

I waited a couple of hours for the fusion paint to dry; then using older pinball backglasses as a hint - I sprayed a coat of silver spraypaint over the white to ensure maximum light blocking for the stenciled area:


I let the silver dry overnight; then removed the stencil to see how it looked:


I then used some napitha to clean up the overspray and more importantly remove the stencil adhesive:


I pulled back part of the protective plastic sheeting to capture the initial result:


You'll have to wait for The rest of the window ... as I want to minimize scratches prior to mounting to the newly powdercoated frame. IE the bulk of the plastic protective film says on the window. Stay tuned.
 
A couple of days ago I got my canopy frame back from Metalink (the powdercoaters)... Time to get that thing wrapped up.
Down goes the new foam ... and new plastic rivets at the canopy bend. One at the front to hold the plastic in place.

Then I attached the strip heater to bend the plastic:


I place a peice of wood and a heavy bar of solder on top of the wood to flatten the strip against the canopy plastic.

and wait until the strip reaches ~250f and the plastic begins to become flexible.

Remove the protective sheeting and install the remaining plastic rivets - and presto-magico:


 
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This entire project is inspirational. Especially this last part since my chair is missing the canopy and rails. I see how you fabricated a new canopy (nice!) but do you (or anyone) have measurements that could be used to get the rails reproduced?
 
douglasgb said:
This entire project is inspirational. Especially this last part since my chair is missing the canopy and rails. I see how you fabricated a new canopy (nice!) but do you (or anyone) have measurements that could be used to get the rails reproduced?
Click to expand...

I could measure the plastic sheet I used to create the canopy.
I only had the metal frame sandblasted and powdercoated gloss black. I didn't have to reproduce.
 
I kinda like that mod. So it was the original frame with new plexi and then art added right?
 
PeRFiDiouS said:
I kinda like that mod. So it was the original frame with new plexi and then art added right?
Click to expand...

yeap - look back at post 222 I removed the old scratch/cracked plexi... had a local shop sandblast it, then powdercoat with a gloss black.

The artwork was sandblasted... with a stencil.
 
No issues that I'm aware of. I've only put one in service.
Given I don't leave my machine running for days on end; there hasn't been an issue.
TBH; I toasted something a few months back and haven't gotten back to debugging it.
I think my G08 monitor flamed again - but not sure.
 
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