Shining Blue light through slits in wood ....... need ideas how to do this ...

[unclet]

Imagine a piece of wood which has thin parallel vertical slits cut out in it.   My goal is to have Blue light shining through these slits, but I am not sure what the best/cheapest/easiest way to do this would be.    Any ideas?   The slits would most likely be about 3 feet long and 1 inch wide.

I am not knowledgeable about LED lighting and such so I can not determine if this is an easy solution or not.   I was thinking that if I could find some blue film-like transparency stuff and shine a white light behind it then I could get a nice blue color shining from the other side, but perhaps this is not a good idea.

What do people recommend for having a nice BLUE light shining through the wood?

[polaris]

lighting filter
that would do it ,with a flourescent behind it or any light source in fact , its about £4 a sheet of about 2 foot by 3 foot in size

[superbigjay]

Do you have space behind your piece of wood?
If so, then Polaris's solution would probably be one of the cheapest solution.
If you don't have room for the kight source, you'll need something small like a LED strip (do a search on ebay for "blue LED strip") or neon wire or glow wire or the light wire they use for decoration and christmas...

Jay

[unclet]

I have room behind the wood for the light source but I am curious whether I would get nice even color throughout the filter.  I do not think I would like some of the blue to be brighter than the other parts.   I believe the filter I would need would be approximately 3 feet long.

The glow wire seems a bit expensive (not terribly expensive .... so it is still an option).  I wonder how long the glow wire lasts.   It is neat that it can blink to sound and that it can be plugged into an outlet.

I am gathering ideas for making my jukebox cabinet and am trying to find some solutions before the build starts.

Thanks for the ideas....

[polaris]

the lighting gel wil work trust me , its my job
a frost filter will diffuse the light source , giving you an even wash onto the gel

glow wire is robust depending on the grade you buy and could give you the option of sound to light depending on the controller you use

[polaris]

the gel is by far the cheapest and easiest way

[unclet]

You mentioned "gel" ..... but I assumed by looking at the sites that this is like a transparency plastic sheet of some sort .... is this correct?


(EDIT)
Ok, I see there is something called "Roscolux" and then something called "SuperGel" ... I guess you are referring to "SuperGel".  I will read about it.
(EDIT)

[SavannahLion]

I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that polaris works for a theatre or a studio or something along those lines.

If that's true, yes, trust him. I worked as an apprentice lighting technician for a theatre for about a year. I was the only guy willing to walk 2x4 wood catwalks thirty or fourty feet above the stage. It was a fun job while it lasted.

But I digress, if I understand what you want, polaris' suggestion should get you the effect you want at a reasonable cost. You can, of course, go with more expensive solutions to achieve the effect you want, but why spend excess money when you don't have to? Not only that, by using gels, it opens up the option to cheaply change the colors should the desire ever arise.

I believe they're called "gels" as a reference to the early years when they were made from some sort of gelatin. Today they're made from different plastics. Can't recall what, exactly.

[polaris]

im what we call in britain ' a lampy ' .i do lights, ideally for bands but could be anything, that needs to be seen in the dark.

filters yes , sorry we call em gels in work.
find a theatre suppliers or contact rosco for a swatch sample, should be free.
roscolux
ask the supplier whats the cheapest gel as you dont need high temp stuff i think the range ive linked to is the cheaper range from rosco. the supergel os overkill for your needs
it will include frost samples too , nice for diffusing the light.
you can make a tube of the frost around a florrie tube as you dont want to see the bulb just the diffused light glowing through the blue.
if im not making sense please say and ill try and make more sense

[unclet]

You mentioned I could use the "frost" type filters/gels around a flourescent lightbulb so I will not see the bulb behind it ....... does this mean that using non-frosted filters/gels around the lightbulb will allow the lightbulb to be seen?

Thanks for the information ......

[polaris]

yes gels are coloured but clear, get yourself a swatch sample book , youll see what i mean

[DrumAnBass]

Probably should get himself a pack of C-47's for mounting that full CTB, right Polaris? 

[unclet]

Ordered the swatchbook .... thanks for the tip !

[bfauska]

Oh, no! A whole swatchbook, good thing you'll only be looking at blues, this way you don't have to narrow it down from all 300ish choices, only about 60 of them.

Depending on the space available behind the panel I agree that the gel with a single source of light behind the whole thing should look good, sort of like if a marquee on a cabinet was just slotted wood and the lights behind were shining out through them.

[unclet]

I think having the samples will let me find a very nice compatible color.   Thanks for everyone's help

[polaris]

Probably should get himself a pack of C-47's for mounting that full CTB, right Polaris? 

thats whats fun about working with americans ,we use different terms for everything leading to many confused looks 

Oh, no! A whole swatchbook, good thing you'll only be looking at blues, this way you don't have to narrow it down from all 300ish choices, only about 60 of them.

 
being a rock n roll boy i get very annoyed when people mention 'hey got any 106?' , you mean red right?

had to tell him to get the whole book , he can enjoy seeing my favourite gel then , light bastard amber.

[HaRuMaN]

What about a blue cold cathode tube?