Wetsanding plexi!!!

[DaveW]

Actually what i'm planning to do is to have the LED's attached directly to the plastic, i figured if it was smooth, then the angle of incidence would be so great that a tiny amount of light would enter the plexi, so it wouldn't 'glow' which is the effect i'm looking for.

If i get a chance (which i probably won't) i'll mess around with spare plexi and see the effects.

-Dave

[The Modfather]

Ok, directly to the plexi in what way though? To the edges or to the side?

What I've done in the past is to use a rotary tool with a diamond burr tip and make notches in the plexi, then buffed those notches smooth so the light would pass through, this puts the light right IN the plexi so the etching pops. This is of course for etched windows with images and so forth, I've never tried it with frosted plexi.

[DaveW]

The LED's were going to be hot-glued to the face of the plexi at one side.

If you look at this pic here...

I was going to frost one side of the glass and glue the LED's behind the bars across the plexi. I'm aiming for a nice even glow across the plexi.

Ideas? You seem to know what you're doing with the plexi.

-Dave

[xmastree]

Just a thought, If the plexi is roughened, it will act as a diffuser. Why not mount some LEDs on the opposite side, shining through the power supply such that the components cast shadows on the plexi?

[The Modfather]

Well Xmas, if he wants an even glow that might not work out the way he wants.

From the looks of it, you're thinking of using 10 LED's? That might be overkill. If you just want a glow from inside, have you considered a clear 4" CCFL in there? Or two, they usually come in pairs in the 4" versions, one above and one below that window. I say clear but technically they're white. If you wanted you could use red ones but since the plexi is already red the white would be more intense. Of course everywhere else that you don't have the red plexi would just be white so, with two of 'em in there, red might be bright enough. Problem with red CCFL's is finding ones that don't actually look pink.

What you might do if you want to stick with LED's, is mount 4 of them in the front and back corners, at an angle, basically like so.

\ /
/ \

So there's an even dispersion of the light.

[DaveW]

The LED's and the Plexi are orange. You gave me an idea there-thanks for the advice

-Dave

[The Modfather]

cool, remember to show pics! I live for pics of mods!