Lit plexi questions (slight frustration so far)

[releasedtruth]

Well, I cut these rather complicated patterns out of plexi for the front of the cabinet and have them set up to be lit with green on one side, blue on the other, really pretty awesome, but my methods for the outlines have faltered. Here's my current process:

I printed out the template I wanted to 'frost' into the plexi. Then I mounted it on mat board and cut out the pattern with an exacto. Took a few hours and came out real nice. Now I have a stencil. I bought Glass Frosting and sprayed some test pieces. The problem is that it doesn't spray super crisp and it's very hard to get an even coat. It looks awesome lit up, but otherwise a little sloppy, which I can't handle.

My first thought is to mask everything off and brush it out with sandpaper which looks good too, but very time consuming. My second thought is to do it in vinyl, which isn't translucent, but would be crisp and delicious. Thoughts?

[toe.]

i have not idea what you sprayed on your plexi....
but i know a little something about vinyl.
here is my ramble.

there are several types of  vinyl which might produce the effect you are looking for.
in the shop i work in we use two types of "etched glass" material.
one is sort of grayish and looks pretty stupid on actual glass/ clear materials (my opinion alone) but is translucent. i think it looks best on dark  things like polished painted  metal or black plexi... ( again my opinion.)
the other is a wonerful looking material that is almost transparent. it has a slight texture to it which  does the frosted/ etched look on a smooth glassy material like untreated plexi or ... well glass... or any other transparent material really.

aside from that there are many many different translucent vinyls... today i had to suffer through a wine red one for a bit.
 

[releasedtruth]

Hmm, that's good to know. At work all we have is solid colors so maybe I can get a roll of the translucent etched type material and cur that. Sad part is that I only need 3 feet! Thanks!

GT

[toe.]

i know vector offers both the neat awesome really really cool clear textured and the funky grey/ silver etched glass materials.
3m might also have some....
i tend to shy away from 3m as it isnt really forgiving  outside of vehicle wraps.

[releasedtruth]

Thankfully this is only 19x11 so I shouldn't be able to mess it up. If it isn't perfect, just do it again. Better than frosting glass.... Screw that up and you're stuck

[toe.]

upon closer inspection the material i liked was a 3M product... wierd
any way its called dusted crystal.
if you need the actual product number youll have to wait until monday.

[tommy]

Plexi will probably start to fade and look cloudy exposed to light for long periods of time.

That spray on frosting is garbage, go to your local glass shop and get real glass sand blasted.

Sorry to add a negative comment here but real glass sand blasted won't look like crap over time and won't need to be replaced.

[releasedtruth]

What I wound up cutting was 1/10" lexan and I'm picking up the vinyl tomorrow. Cutting glass in as intricate a pattern as I wanted was going to be a serious disaster, but I did consider it. I tried some tests with the spray and it sucked. The etched glass vinyl looks pretty sweet. Fading is a concern though, yes.

GT

[Nannuu]

Did you try sandblasting the lexan?  I was wondering because I was going to try this myself but haven't tried any testing yet.  Post some pics if you have any please.

[tommy]

Sand blasting plastic glass will chew away the plastic, the force will be far too strong and probably end up making a hole right through.

[releasedtruth]

Well, I layed the vinyl on the lexan pieces and for the most part it's good. More bubbling on one side than the other, which I'm not a fan of, but it really doesn't light up well at all. I've tried a variety of leds, individual and tubes, lexan doesn't glow very well. The plexi I was using previously worked well, but I've miscalculated here. Waste of a lot of time and a fair amount of dollars. Now I need something else for the front of the cab.... You can see the shape/idea here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=57297.0

GT