New to this, types of plastic

[ryan_slaback]

I am new to the idea of signmaking, but one of the tasks my school district wants me to do now that we have a shopbot is to make our signs inhouse. However, I have no idea which types of plastic I should use and I notice there is quite a bit of difference in price.

One of the tasks is to make new desk signs for everyone. This will be done with .500 inch clear plastic and then I will make a wooden holder. What type of plastic should I use? Everything will be decorative so there is no need for anything high strength.

[kerrazy]

Cast acrylic would be my choice using slow feed and speed rates to ensure you are getting soap like chips being removed.

[billp]

Ryan,
Dale is correct in that cast acrylic usually cuts very well. One thing I did in the past was to use one of the "flourescent Acrylics",in this case put out by the Cyro company (Acrylite FL is the name of the material, and it costs about $150 for a 4'by 8' sheet of .125"around here..).
As you can see from the attached picture it's beauty is that you cut your letters from behind, and as soon as the surface is pierced it gives off the illusion that the letters are illuminated like neon! Absolutely NO finishing required.
And when you have to justify the expense to your district point out to them that the material costs about $5 per square foot, and that should let you make name blanks for about $1 apiece...
By the way this material is also great for fundraisers such as PTA events, etc (do some key rings with the school logo, etc.), and any topical /timely event the school encounters..
6141

[ryan_slaback]

What material would you use for something thick though? I imagine a sheet of half inch cast acrylic would cost a first born or two.

[billp]

Try contacting some sign companies near you. Plastic has MANY varieties and prices. And if you are going to be in charge of signage for your district you will NEED to learn all of your local sign supply houses very soon...It will help you give realistic quotes on specific jobs, so you don't eat too many bids in the beginning...

[keith]

Hi Bill, can you tell be if you purchased that Acrylite FL from Cyro directly, or if you went through a local distributor. Also, that green color that comes from the plastic - is that illuminated from any secondary lighting behind the plastic, or from underneath? Or, is the plastic itself a slight green color and it looks like that with no additional lighting?

[billp]

Keith,
Sorry for the late response, I've been on the road a bit. I bought the Acrylite FL from a local sign supply house, ( probably Tubelight around here..) The green you see is a result of "breaking the surface" of the material itself, and the "neon" effect is caused by incident daylight, NO added illumination (which is the beauty of this stuff....).

[wemme]

Hi Bill,
What typical feed rates do you use on acrylic?
Regards
Bart

[billp]

Bart,
Most of the time I would cut the blanks to size on the table saw (faster), and then do my V carving on the 'Bot between 1.5-2 IPS.
When I was doing lithophanes in acrylic I would cut at about 2IPS as well. These were numbers from my PRT machine.By the time I had my Alpha I had moved on to solid surface materials so I don't really know how fast the Alpha is capable of cutting the material..

[Mayo]

Has anyone here ever done a lithophane in this Acrylite FL ? Even a bitmap face engraving might have a really cool look to it.

[billp]

Mayo,
I did try it on a piece of green FL. It didn't work as the lithophane process took off ALL of the outer layer of plastic in the process, and that outer layer is where the "luminenscence" lives...What I got instead was a translucent green negative...