Namco Galaxian owners 15 mm. green T-molding group-buy

[level42]

Hey you lucky owners of Namco Galaxian cabs (wether Bertolini or Japanese)......are you in need of 15 mm. green T-molding to make your cab look 1000% better ?

Can't find it right ?

Neither did I, until I found this:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Every-Good-Quality-T-mould-for-Arcade-Game-Machine-Arcade-Parts/472418018.html

Now, the stuff is cheap enough, this price is for 100 meters though so it is 328 foot. Since these cabs have t-molding all around the cab I am (royally) guestimating 40' required per cab, so 328/40 is 8,2 cabs from 1 roll, more likely 9.

I don't expect to reach 9 people ordering though, there are not that many Euro/Jap Namco Galaxians.

The big problem are the insane shipping costs. The seller won't do regular mail and ships only by crazy expensive services like UPS and DHL. UPS is "cheapest" to me at $139,78 so the total would be $168,20, which converts to about €123

If we could split by 3, maybe 4 people this comes down to €41 or €30,75 per person. Of course it gets better when even more people would join (maybe project builders ?)

I know it's still expensive, but T-molding is SO important when it comes to cabinet looks....

1 more thing: there is always the risk of import duties with international shippings and I have no clue if that would be added for this. IF so, this of course also has to be shared between participants.

[level42]

Just chatted with the seller:

- the lengths of the rolls is 100 meters
- they have stock
- they do not ship "samples"
- they indicate it as 16 mm. IMHO that 1 mm. won't be a problem

[ataritoobin]

Nice find.  Does it have a flat profile?

[Etienne MacGyver]

That one millimeter will not be a problem and is shaved off easily 

[level42]

Nice find.  Does it have a flat profile?

I don't think so.....

Yeah Etienne, I wondered if that would be an option to do that with 3/4" t-molding......but I thought it would be very hard to get a nice straight cut and also, what would be left on the edge would be too BULBy.....?

[Etienne MacGyver]

I have no idea, only one way to find out  

have some spare of that ?  never hurts to try things out ..

That tool is available at the diy store, and i have one here if you want to try it out

[Belike]

I already bought a set of t-molding from Bruno for my cab, pic here:
https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=1634.0
I didn't have time to check the colour match yet in the past 3 years though.

[level42]

That is lighter than the stuff used on the Namco's. I'm not sure about the color of the Chinese stuff either though !

Here are pics from Aliexpress:







However on these pictures:





It looks actually pretty close to the Namco green color.

Guess those pictures can never tell the exact truth....and I kinda left the "must be absolutely 100% correct color match" phase behind me

By using it, we will loose the "flat" effect too, it's just what you want....I think I can totally live with that compromise, there will never be really flat green T-molding made (like the white) because there simply is no or close to no demand for it....


Etienne, would be awesome to try it out, I guess I have some black that I can try it on.

However, there's one even more important factor: The barb of 3/4" is seriously larger than the one on 15 mm. So, to make that fit, you'd have to router out the groove in the panel, and with only 15 mm. wide panels that might be pretty risky, besides not having the correct slot-cutter for it....

[level42]

Compare barbs:

3/4":



5/8" (15,87 mm)



Mmm, seems they are not much different.....strange...

[DarthNuno]

Had some experiences in the past with such T-Molding size questions (Euro Q*Bert, DOT,… to name few) and I learned this :
Even with the right size written on paper, once the real stuff in hand, with the wood dilatation / expansion due to time of the trench/edge, you'll easily gain/lost 1mm (and more!) and that difference can a good surprise or … a deception.  Too bad you cannot obtain a sample from them. Good luck on this anyway.

[level42]

Thanks Bruno, and you're right.

However I think my memory is clouded a bit because I once ordered T-molding (smooth black) directly from Suzo and that had this really big "barb".....

The sizes shown on these drawings are close enough to fit in the same cut I think.

[Belike]

I will make a closer inspection tomorrow and report back.

[level42]

Thank you my friend ! 

[Belike]

The colour is much lighter than the original, the width is a 100% match.




I think the t-molding in mine is not in that bad condition and original, so I will leave it like that.


It is still a good solution, if the t-molding is totally missing.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Hmm, i need to say that i dont like the light green color, it looks too much "poison snake" to me