Has Anone done photos in clear acrylic ?

[Dean Fowell]

Hey I want to do photos in clear acrylic has anyone done this and got good results?

[John Noell]

Well, first define "good." :) But yes, I have done some photos on clear that people thought were quite good. The problem is displaying them. Kinda depends on the lighting as to how good it looks (IMHO).

[Kenneth Hertzog]

yes I've done photos on clear but I light them with LED's
the photo on the computer screen ( corel ) is nothing like what you get on the acrylic
ken

[Frank Corker]

I'm really finding this almost hard to believe the question. Acrylic is the laser machines dream material, surely you must have seen that when you went looking for your laser or at least in SMC history when you were doing your research.

[Frank Corker]

Sorry Dean, on reflection a bit of a rare outburst on my behalf. Apologies. When images, photographs, they need to be engraved in negative and dependent on which side you engrave, it might be necessary to flip the image. If you use Photograv, this will automatically be selected when you choose the acrylic as material choice. Cast acrylic will work, extruded will pretty much be a waste of time and a very cheap alternative. The results with cast acrylic are amazing especially if they are engraved and displayed with either the backlighting suggested by Ken or with a black backdrop.

[Dean Fowell]

Thanks Frank,

I usually have an out burst from time to time mine was last week, I am getting good photos I am just working out some last min details weather to market them with led light bases, and if this will make the photo look better I need to try color cast acrylic which color would be better?

[Frank Corker]

Well if you are going to light it from underneath with LED then white is still the better choice because it is universal to colour. If you were to use blue for instance, it is always going to be blue and if the lights are a different colour then you will have a problem/conflict with the lights if they aren't white.

[Jim Good]

Frank,

Here is a case where I used a green acrylic and lit it with a blue LED base. It still shows up green, for the most part, on the graphic. I didn't have a white LED base for a 6mm thick acrylic sample so I used blue! I've also attached a picture of the acrylic that isn't lit up. It shows the nice colored edge on the acrylic sample.

Hey, Douglas Parker, here is the experiment you wanted me to run but I used blue light instead of white! With my LED base that holds a 2mm thick acrylic blank, the white base didn't show much difference in the overall color of the etched graphic.

I think even Mickey was a little surprised he turned out green instead of blue! :p

[Frank Corker]

I appreciate your photos Jim and nice examples they are too. That actually looks like edge lit acrylic which is much more responsive to light, but yes, it looks good even with your light combination.

[Joseph Belangia]

Yeah...I dig acrylic. I haven't had a lot of opportunity to work with it, but I really enjoy it when I do.

Here is a promo piece I did for a band....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/jodyb/DSC_2612.jpg

[Martin Boekers]

There are other ways to get images on acrylic. Check this out;

www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/pvc/pvc_case_custom_lithophanes.htm

I've seen these done with CNC routers and are pretty neat.

I'm guessing that a similar thing can be done with higher power lasers
and translucent acrylic.

[Bill Cunningham]

There is not much that hasn't been tried by members of this forum.. There was a pretty good number of posts, and several examples of lithophanes a few years back..

Here's one of the threads..
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?56128-Lithophanes-Way-to-Go&highlight=lithophanes

[Ed Maloney]

Here are a few I've done.
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