Side lit acrylic

[davidallen]

at several camps I've shown luminescent wire and suggested that it might be useful for interior signs.

well I finally got off my duff and made one. it's 1/4" HD plastic about 8"X10", mounted in a frame made from the plastic lattice edging at HD. the 'wire' runs around the edge of the plastic and is contained within the frame. a battery case is glued to the back bottom of the frame.

the image and text are cut from the back side with a 1/8" veining bit.


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the second image is without a flash to show the side light effect. it's more or less impressive depending on ambient lighting. in a dance hall, it does stand out.


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I co-founded a company called 'Being Seen' that imported and sold the wires, but sold my part to the other founder when I changed jobs in 2000. The company is still on the web but I don't know who's running it or their reputation.

I saw that they now have flat strips rather than round wire which may provide more light directed through the plastic.

anyway, have phun.

da

[jay]

Dave, I have been doing the same kind of thing but lighting it with LED's. I find that the LED's are much brighter and available in many colours so you can really get some interesting effects. Also, the life span of LED's compared to the incandescent is much greater and the LED's run a lot cooler. Most LED strips run on twelve volts.

[davidallen]

Jay,

do the LEDs give an even light pattern? unless they're close together, I'd think they'd give 'spots' of light rather than an even plane.

the wires I use will run for over 40 hours on 2 AA's.

LED's would be interesting with a controller, you could set up 'chase' patterns and different colors to get some flicker going.

Have you tried signs with a semi-circle or 'fan' format? I'm thinking the LEDs could go around a small center cutout and be hidden by a bolus integrated into a stand / battery pack. you could then polish the outer edge to give a lit frame effect.

da

[jay]

David, yes, commercially available LED's that are close together can be purchased fairly easily, although they are not cheap.

[stickman]

Guys,

How about a couple sites that we can use to locate these LED systems...

Jay

[jay]

Guys, when I get back to the shop on Monday I will look up some of the sites and post them.

[rookie432]

Fiber optic "edgeglow lighting" is also anouther source of sign lighting.
Benefits: submersable(completely weatherproof)
120v plug in light box that can be outdoor(3R) rated.
You can run up to 100' of edgeglow on one light box.
You can pull multiple 100' runs out of the same light box.
the neatest thing in my opinion is that the light box is basically a steel box with a projector lamp, a magnifier, and a cooling fan, that shoots the light on to the end of a bundle of glass fiber that has been packaged into clear tubing. You can buy or make your own color wheel that rotates in front of the projector lamp and the fiber light slowly changes in front of your eyes from blue ,to green, to red , to yellow, etc.
Completely flexable.

Drawbacks: I don't think it's as quite as bright as the new LED lamp setups.
It's still expensive. Especially the light boxes, however an industrious person could make their own.

I have represented Supervision Brand before, but I think there are several companies out there making it now.

google search "fiber optic lighting" and you'll find several suppliers.

Bill

[stickman]

Hello all,

I am looking for places to get acrylic sheeting. Anyone got some good sites?

Thanks, Jay

[brian_harnett]

LED source http://www.superbrightleds.com/

Plastics http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/default.asp

I have ordered from both places and have been happy with them, they ship out fast too.