Edge Light Acrylic?

[Kit Dumph]

Ok guys, I have been using the hanging light bar and deskmount LED bar from Delvesplastic for my products for about 6 months. I need to upgrade though as I charge a premium price for the product I make and a number of customers have been put off by the "cheapness" of the lightbars. I have to agree with them that, while they function great they look very cheap. Other then Lumenege is there anyone else out there offering these? Do you guys have some DIY options you suggest?

[Brent Franker]

I've been wanting to test some edge lighting stuff but the DIY stuff seems to be hard to come by (something cheaper than the $35 for 12" like what is offered at Delvie's Plastics). I found this on Amazon and put it in my Wish List planning to order it and see what it was all about but haven't had a chance yet (story of my life there LOL). I have no idea if this is any good or what you are talking about but you can check it out :)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010O63WE0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=22R8XKUK0JPR8&coliid=I1W6UOUVQRH9R5

[Klaus Madsen]

Yeah I would also like to hear about other options :)

[David Somers]

Perhaps I am thinking of something other than what you are looking for. But have you done a google search for "Roll of LED Lighting"

You should find self adhesive strips of LED lights that can be cut to length, are small and compact, and can be had in 12V and used with a battery or used with a small transformer.

See if that gets you close to what you want?

[Kit Dumph]

Pretty close David, but the base goes back to that cheap look. I have been looking at options on sourcing the stuff myself, but like you said the pricing on Delvie's is actually pretty good. Wonder if I could convince the maker to come up with a better base, and hanging mount. Might have to start the Aliababa process to get exactly what I want and sell extras on the back end.

[John Lifer]

I looked at the base from delvie's and it really didn't look that bad. At least for a retail item. He's using the cheap Chinese led strips, nothing else is close to the pricing. But what would you change on the actual base? It is extruded aluminum and from pic doesn't look too bad.

[Braden Todd]

It's not a base, but Gyford has standoffs with LEDs in them. I have a few in the shop and need to do a piece in the next week or so if you're up my way.

I also used to get some supplies from jecoglass.com, it has been a long time so I'm not sure what all is stocked now but may be worth looking at. You'd need to build your base and then add the LED strip and power supply to it.

Good luck!

[Tony Lenkic]

Another source for bases is LaserSketch dot com.
Check for prices on-line catalog.

[John Blazy]

Ahh the hunt for good LED sources. So many companies come and go. My pro lighting guy turned me on to his supplier for tight spaced diode LED in warm white, and I love it. It has the color of between incandescent and halogen (not blue like the cheap, common LED), and the diode spacing is 5/16" not 5/8", so hot spots are completely eliminated (see pic below - no way you could believe its LED tape). The company is Elemental LED. add the words for the website. The only bummer, is that you find your product on their site and then you have to have a local dealer like a lighting supply company buy it for you, then you pick it up or they ship to you. But well worth it. You have to know a little bit about LED, and need to order "drivers" which are transformers to go with the tape, and some are pricey, but short lengths only require smaller, less pricey ones built into the AC adapter. I absolutely HATE cheap looking LED, when the good stuff has been available for years. I hear that Outwater Plastics carries LED, but it might be cheap.
344116

[Kev Williams]

Just me, but for these 'premium priced' pieces, I don't think you'll be satisfied with ANY off-the-shelf holders. Buy the light strips and start making them out of wood. Oak, cedar, walnut, old barn wood, options are endless even if you never vary the actual stand pattern...

[Kit Dumph]

Kev, that is about where I'm at with this....

[John Blazy]

Hi Kit,

I looked at Lumenege and they have two major downfalls: One - the LED's are at the "cheap" spacing - 5/8" to 3/4" o.c., NOT the 5/16" that my high-end LED is (From Elemental). Second is that the LED does not have light diffuser acrylic over top (Plex # W2447), which shows the hotspots. Otherwise they look nice and have the warm white option. Maybe you can specify to them that you want the tight diode LED, and then you can add the light diffuser acrylic over top of the good LED for a solid white light bar.

Otherwise you are in for laborious mfr of the bases yourself. I have made gloss black bases for my glass and have been in your predicament of wanting them high-end, so i have explored several ways. My first way was glue lam of three layers of fine density MDF (Plumcreek makes the best) and then ripped the 2-1/4" panel into the strips with the T-saw blade at about a 15 degree angle for bases about 3" wide at bottom tapering up to about 1-1/2 wide at top, then sanded and filled with polyester putty or sprayed epoxy filling primer (best), then sprayed black lacquer topcoatd with gloss Auto 2K urethane. They looked awesome, but laborious.

If I ever made more, I would get 1/4" black acrylic, cut into about 7" wide strips, then V-groove the strips about 3" in from both edges then line bend (using linear heating element) them into "U" channels in the trapezoidal profile of an LED base. Then cut these channels to the length needed, cap the ends with black acrylic and buff the solvent welded joints. Then laser the slot in the top for your edge lit panel, and inset the diffused LED strip from the underside, and Bam - you have a highend base. Wish it was as easy as that, but I am all ears for a better solution, because I need LED bases for my sculptures too, and havent found ANY online that are good enough.

[Jeff Body]

Well my dad recently retired and we've started producing light bases for people in some of the FB forums.
They're available in 6", 8", and 12". We can also make them in custom lengths. We just need to know the width of the acrylic you plan on using.
We can make them with a single solid color or a remote controlled RGB options.
They are handmade with everything you need to drop in your acrylic and sell.
I'll have better picture tonight once I setup my photo booth.
Let me know if you're interested.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2/body80/1B42C713-AA3F-4B58-AF8F-C3A11947AE6C.jpg (http://s52.photobucket.com/user/body80/media/1B42C713-AA3F-4B58-AF8F-C3A11947AE6C.jpg.html)

[Kit Dumph]

Hey Jeff, think we are already talking on FB!

[David Somers]

Kit.....I was thinking of just the tape in my post, not his mounts. I should have said it better, but I was also thinking about a wooden base as well. I have seen several that looked quite nice. A router table or, of you are more adventurous, a CNC can make some nice base shapes that might serve your need without too much effort on your part. And that is part of the problem. How much effort are you willing to put into the base and still stay in your price range and feel like you are earning enough $$ on the job.

Dave
PS....doing a dual or trio of light colors can be a lot of fun and very attractive. Basically 3 layers of Acrylic, engraved seperately, with separate LED strips, one color for each layer. You can get quite detailed.

[Paul hardy]

superbrightleds [dot] com has some nice leds strips and extruded AL channels. You can get some premade stuff , or get components and build your or version.

[Klaus Madsen]

Well my dad recently retired and we've started producing light bases for people in some of the FB forums.
They're available in 6", 8", and 12". We can also make them in custom lengths. We just need to know the width of the acrylic you plan on using.
We can make them with a single solid color or a remote controlled RGB options.
They are handmade with everything you need to drop in your acrylic and sell.
I'll have better picture tonight once I setup my photo booth.
Let me know if you're interested.



Hi Jeff
That sounds good, do you have a website or how can we order.
What FB Forums are you talking about?

Thanks
Klaus

[Kit Dumph]

At this point, if I have to actually do it I will be losing money due to time lost I should be spending on other things! Total price per piece really needs to be under 50.00 to work well with my current product range. 25-35 price range would be ideal...