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Newbie stuffup with side rail


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G'day all.

 

Been working on building a cabinet from scratch on-and-off for about 2 years now, and it's been a comedy of errors most of the time as I've never done anything of the sort before! So far I've been able to recover from each of my missteps one way or another, but now I think I've met my match.

 

Last night I attached my side rails - regular WPC ones from Mr Pinball. Nervous that it seemed to be a "one chance to get it right" process, I did some practice runs first without removing the protective paper from the glue strip along the back of the rail. I found it seemed to work out right if I held the rail out at an angle from the cabinet and rested the top lip of the rail on the plastic glass slide, and then could rotate the rail down and press flush to the side of the cabinet.

 

However when I removed the glue backing and did it for real it didn't go quite as I practiced. On one side of the cabinet the rail doesn't run 100% parallel to the glass slide but rises slightly so it ends 3-4 mm above the slide at the front:

 

siderail2.jpg.a655f2d40167e404ceed65b6bc9ad3b0.jpg

 

I thought that my stuffup hopefully wouldn't make any difference except from a cosmetic point of view, but I've found that my lockdown bar now doesn't seem to want to lock in place no matter how I try and I can only assume it's because of the additional height of the rail. :( I was glad I at least hadn't nailed the rail in place before finding out!

 

I've tried to prise the duff rail off gently so maybe I could reposition it, but that glue strip is too bloody strong so I can't see it coming off without either bending the rail or lifting the cabinet decal or both.

 

Any AA'ers here had any experience with this kind of thing? I'm hoping there's something I can do to rescue my situation without buying another rail and getting another decal printing and starting over :cry Any suggestions would be very welcome please!

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When i remove side rails , i use a new bladed box cuter style knife and run it up under side rail to cut sticky tape . It will take a few passes going deeper each time .

You should be able to remove without to much damage to decale , but cause you have mounted rail high , when you refit it lower it will cover up any marks .

Clean up surfaces and get some more tape at bunnings . Done

We all learn by mistakes

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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When i remove side rails, i use a new bladed box cuter style knife and run it up under side rail to cut sticky tape.

I don't have a box cutter, but I've got a craft knife with a few spare new blades (used to trim the decal when I put it on) so I might try starting with that first. If it turns out I need to get a box cutter to reach further under the rail then I can go buy one to finish the job.

 

... cause you have mounted rail high , when you refit it lower it will cover up any marks...

Good point which I hadn't considered :)

 

We all learn by mistakes

True. For instance I've learned that it was a mistake to even attempt something this ambitious as a first hands-on project! :D It's rewarding to see it coming together (slowly) but every step of the way stresses me out lol.

 

Cheers for the reply vett - great to get feedback from someone with experience!

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You can also use a jointing knife that you push through the tape then run horizontally. There's no risk of cutting through the decal as it's not sharp enough, but it will eat the tape OK.
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When you go to put the rails back on only peel the tape of a little bit at each end so you can grab it once rails are in position, also normally you have a bolt hole to line them up

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Paper backing on the tape

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You can also use a jointing knife that you push through the tape then run horizontally. There's no risk of cutting through the decal as it's not sharp enough, but it will eat the tape OK.

Haven't heard of one of those so definitely don't have one lol. The decal is pretty thin though so I'd be surprised if it doesn't tear!

 

When you go to put the rails back on only peel the tape of a little bit at each end so you can grab it once rails are in position, also normally you have a bolt hole to line them up

Awesome hint, I never would have considered that! And true, because it's a new cab there was no hole but I could have marked myself one when doing the practice run. I will keep it mind, thanks newy :)

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You may have success with a heat gun or the wife's hairdryer to remove the side rail. It is going to take some heat but most double sided tape lets go if you can get enough heat to it. Maybe try one section at a time and when it partially comes off, slip an A4 sheet of paper under it so it doesn't reattach before moving on.
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You may have success with a heat gun or the wife's hairdryer to remove the side rail. It is going to take some heat but most double sided tape lets go if you can get enough heat to it. Maybe try one section at a time and when it partially comes off, slip an A4 sheet of paper under it so it doesn't reattach before moving on.

Cheers for the suggestion steve. I'd already considered whether a hair dryer would soften the glue but I'd rejected the idea because I was worried it might also soften and stretch the decal - not sure if that's the case. I might keep it up my sleeve as a follow-up option. The idea with the sheet of paper is great though, I'll use that :)

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Even the professionals stuff up, I have a Jackbot with side rails that sit up about 3mm from the factory. Even if you get the lock down bar seated you will be constantly annoyed because your thumbs rub on the sharp edge.
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Even the professionals stuff up, I have a Jackbot with side rails that sit up about 3mm from the factory. Even if you get the lock down bar seated you will be constantly annoyed because your thumbs rub on the sharp edge.

That would definitely tick you off!

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Cheers for the suggestion steve. I'd already considered whether a hair dryer would soften the glue but I'd rejected the idea because I was worried it might also soften and stretch the decal - not sure if that's the case.

 

Well in that case I understand you don't want to damage your new decals.

How about a heat shield to protect the decals?. Just a piece of sheet metal with an air gap under it over the decals should prevent any heat getting to them. Put an edge of the sheet metal hard up against the side rail bottom edge and hold the side of the sheet metal not against the side rail up so it isn't touching the decal. This will prevent any heat getting to the decals. The heat will be stopped by the metal sheet. As long as there is an airgap, this should work perfectly to preserve your decals.

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just heat gun or fishing line remove and fit new tape and refit

I'd read a suggestion of dental floss on another forum but that seemed farfetched to me lol. I do have some fishing line though so I can certainly give that a go, and since they're your rails I'm confident you know your stuff with them :D Cheers Wayne!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

How about a heat shield to protect the decals?. Just a piece of sheet metal with an air gap under it over the decals should prevent any heat getting to them...

Great suggestion thank you, I will find something I can use and definitely do that!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

So I now have a number of suggestions from everybody that I can try, and in my head I'm ranking them by the likely risk of causing noticeable damage to the cab ... heat, fishing line, jointing knife, box cutter. I'll give one or more a try tomorrow and report back on how I fare in case it's useful to anyone in the future. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read and offer advice, you're all legends!

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Success!

 

Borrowed the better half's hair dryer and tried just heating the side rail and trying to work it off, but found the rail stayed stuck fast to the decal and was lifting that off the cab ply instead.

 

I fed a length of fishing line between the rail and the cabinet but found it didn't separate very effectively unless the rail was also heated, so I borrowed the better half's hands as well so one of us could heat and the other could work the line. After 10 mins or so we got the rail off, though the process had carved up the decal a little in places and left it stuck to the back of the rail (and conversely some glue strip remained on the decal):

 

removal1.jpg.adc177c1009ec8cb37949e1e0d4158a3.jpg

 

As @vett had foreseen though, all damage was hidden behind the rail so it wasn't a significant problem. After cleaning the rail and the cab to get neat surfaces, I ran some more double-sided tape along the back of the rail, made sure I had it in the right spot this time, and used the genius hint from @newy16216 about leaving the backing paper attached to the tape and pulling it out from under the rail once it was positioned properly.

 

So now, I have a rail sitting correctly on the slide ...

 

removal2.jpg.45546f24953bac235cd6f3160b87dd4a.jpg

 

... and no visible sign that it was ever in the wrong spot. Plus my lockdown bar secures in place again, so I'm the happiest of campers :)

 

Huge thanks go out again to all you guys who offered guidance on this - the outcome was so much better than I was thinking it could be! The knowledge and experience of the community here always astounds me. I sure wish I could've collected what everybody already knew about cab building and dumped it into my own head before I started this project! :D

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