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Thread: Lasering acrylic for edge lighting

  1. #1

    Lasering acrylic for edge lighting

    Looking to make so 6"w x 40" long 6mm clear acrylic panels for edge lighting with LED's
    the lighting will be ran along both sides of the 40" length so the light only needs to travel 3" to reach the middle of the panel
    typically when you look at these they have a grid lasered on the back to catch the light
    any ideas as to how far apart the grid lines should be?
    are dots or any other patterns effective too?
    any other tips or advice would be appreciated

    Thanks!!!

  2. #2
    ANY abrasion to the surface of cast acrylic will light up when edge lit. Imperfections will also stand out, such as 'banding', where (for reasons unknown to me) the laser's path may overlap more in some areas than others, causing light to reflect/refract inconsistently...
    banding1.jpg

    The best way I've found to engrave plex and glass consistently is to engrave everything as a photo, so the laser's output is 'broken up'--

    this is a wine glass I engraved 'normally', notice all the wacky banding patterns-
    btg1.jpg

    this is what I got when I painted the logo 80% black in Corel and let the machine
    engrave it as a halftone photo--
    btg2.jpg

    Same effects can happen with plex...

    Best advice I have besides this is get some scrap pieces of plex and do lots of tests
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


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