Name Plate

[Josh Richard]

Here is a name plate design we have been playing around with. There are three layers, two 1/8 acrylic pieces with a 1/8" piece with letters removed and other letters placed in. a third piece is used as a base plate.
We have made a bunch for school sectaries and administrators; these were clear with black letters. I had some blue mirror and used some to make one for myself.

The file was created using Adobe Illustrator CS4, and saved as a DXF for all you CoralDRAW folks. If you would like an Illustrator file, let me know, will try to post one

[Jeff Belany]

I think that's a cool looking piece. My first question is -- with 4 pieces to cut (2 outside and a clear & a color for the letters) plus a base, how cost effective is it? Would seem like a lot of work. Could you paint fill the middle one instead of cutting out the letters?

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Mike Null]

Very nice work and a good plan.

[Chuck Stone]

Here is a name plate design we have been playing around with. There are three layers, two 1/8 acrylic pieces with a 1/8" piece with letters removed and other letters placed in.


Is this an inlay? Not sure from looking at the photo..
Looks good, in any case

[Josh Richard]

The way I see it, a sheet (4’x8’) of acrylic is $110.00 or about $3.50 a square foot, each plate takes about 1 square foot of clear and ¼ that amount of the black costing about $4.00 in materials. Labor is free, high school students are begging get out of study-hall and make stuff. Equipment was provided by district.
Students are selling these for $20.00 to staff & administrators bringing us about $16.00.
Not sure what you folks in industry are getting, but we are happy with that return!

[Josh Richard]

The middle piece of acrylic is cut all the way through creating a cavity. The same letters are cut from a different color and placed in the cavity. The trick is not losing the small pieces in the middle of the letters!

[Dee Gallo]

That's a nice design and great practice for students to develop their skills - well done, teach! It's nice to see that the class is self-sustaining moneywise, too, so the powers-that-be won't complain.

I wish we had a class like that when I was in HS...of course, when I was in HS we didn't have calculators yet...

:) dee

[Josh Richard]

That's a nice design and great practice for students to develop their skills - well done, teach! It's nice to see that the class is self-sustaining moneywise, too, so the powers-that-be won't complain.

I wish we had a class like that when I was in HS...of course, when I was in HS we didn't have calculators yet...

:) dee
Calculators, I think those will be next...
http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/index.html

[Frank Corker]

Whilst looking at Josh's post I saw this one which is very cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngb4SYR74m4&feature=related

it's by the same guy but way cooler

[Ed Maloney]

A related question to desk name plates. I was thinking of offering these, but blank so people could use them as craft projects.

The problem is attaching the name part to the base. Using 3mm acrylic, I would go and cut a rectangle that's 2.7mm so it would be a slight snug fit so no gluing would have to be involved.

Here's the problem. The thickness of sheets will vary so the measurements for one sheet may not work on another. Any suggestions on how to attach the name part to the base so I wouldn't have to go making a test run on each sheet for thickness without having to resort to gluing?