Hey Jim,
Attached are a few pictures of some acrylic cases/enclosures I fabricated in the past.
I used 1/4" clear extruded acrylic. Extruded acrylic is cheaper than cast acrylic and will not yellow after sun exposure like plexiglass.
It is easy to cut with a jigsaw and also easy to drill. Cutting and drilling needs to be done very slowly with almost no pressure applied - otherwise the acrylic will overheat and melt - and always use super sharp tools!
The edges can be sanded with a palm-sander to grid 220 for gluing or up to grid 1000 to prepare for polishing.
The best way to polish clear acrylic is by using a propane torch (you also can fix scratches that way).
For gluing you need an acrylic cement. It's a very thin and clear fluid and only very little is needed to bond two pieces together - same principle used in the plumbing world, apply adhesive to a PVC pipe and a fitting, push together and hold
for 30-60 seconds, let cure for 5-15 minutes.
I strongly recommend to watch a few YouTube videos on "how to work with acrylic". After watching about an hour, I was ready to work with a few test pieces and after a few days I established my first TTY case.
I hope this helps !!!
best regards,
Nick - N0NCQ
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
-------- Original message --------
Date: 6/24/22 5:42 PM (GMT-05:00)
Subject: RE: [GreenKeys] Fun with TTY's - Poor Man's EDISON'S TICKER - suggestions needed
Hey Jim, how the heck are you? Things are fine as wine here in GA.
Nick, N0NCQ, has worked wonders making plexiglass enclosures for some of his TTY equipment. And I’ve CC’d him on this email.
Nick, can you help Jim get started and maybe send him a few pictures of some of your work?
Steve G./N4TTY
H/W my current project - looking for suggestions for a DOME
to cover my POOR MAN'S TICKER !
1, Do not know how to cut holes in glass so plastic will do
2. Tried a 5 gallon water jar, but it was a little too small.
3, Only punches the needed feed hole, the rest are disabled
4, Runs @ 45 baud now, used to run 39 baud (long story)
5, (thanks to Jim H, for the fix years ago)
6. A plastic cake pan / lid / cover was a thought I had ?????