Well you tell me?

[James Jaragosky]

Well I finely got to try out one of those cheap led light sets from Wally-world.
I got a cheap wooden picture frame at hobby lobby. (currently almost everything there is 50% off )
I routed out the bottom of the frame to hold the excess wire and bulbs.
Drilled the holes for the light to mount in. leaned that this is an important step, as to drilling the holes exactly center in the panel. (as you can see I missed on 4 of my holes due to rushing and not using an layout line.
I then choose a dfx file image, from my just delivered SignTorch collection.
Vector cut it on 20 speed 1% power.
Assembled.
And!
Well you tell me?
Thanks for the input Jim J.

[Larry Bratton]

Looks good James. I looked for those lights in our Wally but they apparently didn't have them.

[Steven Smith]

Hey jAMES... The images are a little small for my eyes.
Your engraving looks good as far as I can tell. The effect could be better by finding a way to have the the led assembly 'look' into the edge freely, without drilling a hole for each LED segment. Also, LEDs have different viewing angles, some very narrow <10degs to >120deg... so that would be something to consider too. The idea I guess is to direct as much light as possible onto the edge as randomly as possible. I believe you have a good start, but some fine tuning could help greatly.

[Joe Pelonio]

I decided to try it too, and have ordered some lights from 2 different places, both about $7 with shipping, not LED but battery mini-lights, so I'll see how they work.

[James Jaragosky]

Hey jAMES... The images are a little small for my eyes.
Your engraving looks good as far as I can tell. The effect could be better by finding a way to have the the led assembly 'look' into the edge freely, without drilling a hole for each LED segment. Also, LEDs have different viewing angles, some very narrow <10degs to >120deg... so that would be something to consider too. The idea I guess is to direct as much light as possible onto the edge as randomly as possible. I believe you have a good start, but some fine tuning could help greatly.
that makes me wonder if i could make some type of defuseer to pass the led beam through before it hits the acrylic?
any thoughts on if this would work?

[James Jaragosky]

Joe i know you saw that link to those neon strip lights that was posted yesterday. what ya think? personally i think i will order some, and see if a continuations light source will work any better than individual led's. also they are cheap enough. here is that link http://www.vibelights.com/ posted by Glenn Corser yesterday.

[Joe Pelonio]

Joe i know you saw that link to those neon strip lights that was posted yesterday. what ya think? personally i think i will order some, and see if a continuations light source will work any better than individual led's. also they are cheap enough. here is that link http://www.vibelights.com/ posted by Glenn Corser yesterday.
I saw them, but had already ordered the other lights. Appears to be about the same price per unit, after I see how the lights work I may order some of those if you have good luck. I'm not sure if the light will go up far enough.

[James Jaragosky]

Looks good James. I looked for those lights in our Wally but they apparently didn't have them.
this is a test too see if this image size is any better.

[William Johanson]

I did some testing on some LED's about a month ago. I have a acrylic shop in town that has a scrap bin that they sell there offcuts by the pound. So I have a big variety of different types of acrylic both cast and extruded. With the limited testing I had done the different types (brands) of acrylic made a huge difference in how it diffused the light. Some would be very evenly diffused others seem to keep the light more focused like you were experiencing James. I tried different ways of diffusing like sanding the edge, putting another piece of acrylic between the sign and the light and varying the distance between the lights and the acrylic. These didn't seem to make as much difference as just changing to a different type of acrylic. I can't remeber now which brands or types of acrylic worked better but I know the lucite that I bought from Menards was the worst for diffusing the light. I think the cast diffused the light better plus it obviously etched much better. Just something else to think about.


Bill

[Steven Smith]

James- your new pictures are much better! Here is a link to a post showing what I did real quick:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=645049#poststop

I made the stand out of some junk acrylic then spray painted it black. The LED assembly was near but not in direct contact with the edge. The LEDs are very bright and have a wide viewing angle. I think I'm going to experiment with cold cathode lighting just for fun...

[James Jaragosky]

Did you have to build a base to hold the light assembly?
Or did it come ready to hold that acrylic?
What thickness is the acrylic that you used in that project?
Do you get better results (light diffusion) with thinner or thicker acrylic?
So many questions???????
Thanks for the help I really am excited about all the possibilities this will have.
Right now I am bogged down with photo work. Which at first was exciting. But has become an endless mind numbing line of photo rework.
What amazes me is the content, composition, and quality of the photos people give me to engrave for prosperity.
More so the content than the other two, some of the stuff they want engraved is just plain bad, I am sure they have a better photo worth engraving some place.
And if one more guy gives me a photo that he has been carrying around in his wallet for 3 years, I’ll scream. (Of course I politely ask them to please get me a photo in better shape and a little bigger, please.)
Well anyway enough of my ranting I got bokoo bad photos to make look good before Monday morning.
Thanks again Jim J

[Peter Boyford]

Usually I would prefer 8mm acrylic. 6mm also works, but you really need something to contain the light. The thicker the acrylic, the more different random angles the light will reflect in, causing better overall diffusion.

Also, I prefer diodes with a viewing angle of between 40 and 60 degrees. Any less will show the light as a cone. Any more will let too much light out the sides of the acryllic before it really enters.

Attached is a rudimentary drawing of the effects of choosing incompatible lighting and thickness of acrylic. As it shows, a lot of light escapes the acrylic choosing 120 degree diodes. On the other hand, you get too little diffusion using narrow angles.