This is my first go at an LED Edge Lit Acrylic sign. A small one, 140mm diameter.
From a distance of 3ft (1 metre) it looks really good. But up close there is a weird thing happening.
Close up, weird lines:
Overall, I’m pretty much happy with the result. but that weird pattern annoys me.
I have a different machine than you do. My line interval is 0.25 and I cross-hatch. They turn out pretty good.
Thanks for that info Jeff. I used 0.08 interval which probably clashed with the dpi that I used. Cross hatch is something I never thought about. I’ll give it a try. Thanks.
Does anyone find this interesting these days, or is it just old school. That is, old sh*t that has been done before many times over?
Perhaps it’s all a bit “Twee”?
Other people’s experiences are always interesting and one can learn from them.
It looks good. I was just telling you what settings I use.
Thanks for that Jeff, much appreciated.
I was just wondering two things:
Is it worth the bother to create these types of edge lit signs anymore - or is it “old hat”?
I think I know what caused the weird pattern. I used the “dish soap” method, and those lines certainly don’t align with the horizontal X axis in the way it was imaged. Therefore something else is at play. Maybe when the dish soap gets hot, it spreads out forming oil patterns which affected the burn-through power of the laser - maybe?
In any case, the dish soap method did get rid of the edge staining I was experiencing previously. I’ve got some app/transfer tape but haven’t tried that yet.
Happy to hear what other people do.
Cheers.
I make these as requested. I also just leave the paper on the acrylic and don’t add anything else.
Ahh, I thought about trying it that way, as in leaving on the paper. But then I thought I would be lazy, and it would/could be a pain to remove it afterwards.
It doesn’t look like it will just wash off with water like paper transfer tape would. Or does it?
That looks good Jeff. Perhaps I shouldn’t watch too many you-tube “how-to” videos. What’s amusing is that “dish-soap” method is shown on Trotec’s website.
