Glowing Plexi-glass?

[pconn5]

Does anyone here have any experience with lighting up an entire sheet of plexiglass by edge lighting? I have been trying to figure out a way of doing it by sanding the surface of the acrylic to make the light diffuse over the surface which sort of works, but it leaves the surface very rough and scratched up if you look closely at it so I don't really like this idea.

I have been looking at maybe some of this to try http://www.acrylite-shop.com/US/us/acrylite-ff-extruded--e67bmhfjy5i/acrylite-ff-extruded-blue-5c028-gt-lxhoo6bdbi~p.html or some sort of frosted acrylic to do it maybe?

This is going to be for my control panel overlay if I can figure it out.

I attached a picture of the control panel I built that uses a keyboard hack, it is not quite done yet and the picture is bad. I will be putting a trackball in the middle and hopefully a ball top dedicated 4 way above it with one button next to it. This is just the very start, the cabinet building will hopefully begin this summer! I'm very excited. I also attached a sample of what my marquee should look like, still working on it though.

Basically the idea is to have the plexiglass edge lit with LED's. I will paint where the white is in the image black, and want to get the lightning to glow blue and go into the trackball which will eventually be lit up blue also. I was thinking of having the gray cloud be semi-transparent to glow slightly also but not sure yet. The darker blue inside the lightning will be etched out also to be a darker color with the blue glow around it. I'm just not sure exactly what kind of acrylic would be best for this. Anyone have any ideas they can throw around to pull this off?

[mlalena]

If this is for a marquee, can't you use regular glass?

[pconn5]

No, I want to use it for the control panel overlay. So I can't back light it, I have to edge light it and I want to have the lightning glow blue. Kind of like the etched plexi-glass that lights up but in larger sections I guess. Unless there is a way to easily etch a large section like that.

[SavannahLion]

You'll have to rough up the surface with the way you want to do it. But it's not as bad as you would think. You're just trying to go about it er... not quite right. A few years ago, some guy converted his pantry door with sheets of acrylic and used the technique to light up a dragon holding as sword. I believe it was on instructables, but I can't find it or the link I had. I think I found it through Digg.

However, I did find someone else that does the exact same techniques, applies multi-colored lighting (pantry guy did too) and animates the thing. check it out: http://www.instructables.com/id/Animating-Multilayered-Engravings/

Point is, why sand or etch the whole sheet when you just want to do the lightning bolts? Try using a Dremel or sand blasting to make things "even."

[eds1275]

I would buy that acid you can get for roughing up your bathtub bottom [for slip resistance] and test it on a scrap of the material you are want to use it on. Try painting it on with a stencil.

[push2reject]

I would buy that acid you can get for roughing up your bathtub bottom [for slip resistance] and test it on a scrap of the material you are want to use it on. Try painting it on with a stencil.

Etching compound or Hydrofluoric acid will etch glass and ceramics.  It will not etch most polycarbinate or polyethylene plastics.  You can experiment if you'd like but don't be puzzled when you wipe it off and it has done nothing to the plexi.  You'll observe the compound actually comes in a plastic bottle.

You might want to take a look at UV reactive plexi it comes in a couple of colors and you can buy it in sheets.  (pretty pricey when you can find it.)

[DeLuSioNal29]

Would thicker plexi or acrylic help?

Also, have you thought about tracing something with a dremel from underneath?  Check out what this guy did:  http://maximusarcade.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1873&p=7460&hilit=alien#p7440



DeLuSioNaL29

[Epyx]

That would look nice on my current Aliens build! 

[pconn5]

Thanks for the ideas. Yea I noticed with a thicker plexi and etching on the bottom it lights up a lot more and should work if I get some bright LED's. Thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately I am back at school so this is going to have to go on hold for a bit until I can get back and order some plexi and LED's to start designing with. From what I have seen though it should work and look pretty cool.

[draculawithglasses]

Based on my experience.... I have done this exact same thing on my control panel. My first go at it I manually etched the plexi with a dremel but it looked like crap with the lights on no matter how much time i spent trying to smooth it out.

I would highly recommend getting it CNC cut! It will look so much better.

Also FYI, it doesnt take much light to light up, its all about the placement of the LEDs...

[Kevin Mullins]

Couple examples - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=86893.0