anyone use plexiglass faceplates?

[KA4HJH]

>The best overlay material is polycarbonate... you can get a thin 
>sheet of matte
>finish polycarbonate, silkscreen the back of it (reverse) and glue (double
>stick tape) it to a lexan or plexiglass (or aluminum) sheet.This is the
>material they use for the front of Tektronix scopes etc...  It is very scratch
>resistant.

What you're describing sounds like mylar. Polycarbonate is actually 
*softer* than acrylics and scratches more easily, although it's much 
more resilient and very difficult to break (practically bulletproof). 
These days plastic eyeglass lenses (a variety of polymers) are given 
a scratch-resistant coating. If only you could coat your panels... At 
any rate this is a good alternative, if you don't mind it being 
frosted instead of transparent. You can probably get transparent 
mylar but I don't know how you'd laminate it to the panel without 
glaring optical flaws--or a bunch of expensive equipment.

>BYW i think "Lexan" is polycarbonate... It is much tougher than plexiglass...

Yep. And Mylar is a polyester... Oh no, my brain has reached its 
limit--I can't think of the chemical name!  8/

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

ICQ: 45652354