My main business is edge lit signs I make them for days. I leave all the plastic or paper mast on. The melting you have going on there looks like you have extruded acrylic instead of cast acrylic or your feeds are to slow here’s one of mine is make the base and order the roll of lights off amazon.com
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Here’s the scoop. Most acrylic with the plastic film is extruded and most with paper is Cast acrylic. The difference is extruded is softer and has a lower melting point. Extruded also cuts smoother which makes it less desirable for edge lit signs because it refracts less light. I leave the paper on to cut but take the plastic film off if that’s what it has. I use an inexpensive 30 degree V bit from E-bay. here are my settings in inches: depth of cut 0.0175, depth per pass 0.01, feed rate 105 in/min, bit size .03125. I put my shop vac on blow instead of suck for added cooling. My spindle is a Makita. I cut with it on it’s lowest speed setting. (8000 to 10000 rpm). Hope this helps.
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What?
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Not at all. Just thought it was humorous that the signs are exactly the same.
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What Do you mean with 2 stage cutting? First with a large bit and the with a smaller one?
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Oh no it looks like we have a sign-off
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Where do you guys get your cast acrylic from?
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Could you link please? Maybe I’m just blind but I’m trying to find some and best I can find is 8 dollars for 12x12 at .5" thickness but then it’s 10 dollars per for shipping
Never made edge lit sign so not sure if .5 is the thickness I even need or not
Extruded? OK, but what about Cast Acrylic sheets? You find a good supplier?
I have a good supplier advanced plastics here in nashville. 4x8 sheet cut to anyway you like for 130 bucks 1/4
Great team choice!
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I know right cant beat it.
MUCH better than the Cowboys sign!
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I have made a few signs using LED kits from Ebay and Amazon.
Is anyone using battery power for their LED signs? The kits I have used are 12V and include the AC adapter.
@PhilJohnson - I love the Mos Eisley sign! Care to share the artwork? If not, I understand.
I also wanted to try something different. All of the signs I see sit on a shelf or counter. Has anyone else tried hanging their signs?
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I haven’t really figured out how to hang them yet and yes much better than the Cowboys lol
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Do you have any links?
There are several variants of the LED strips. What are you looking for? There are ones with just a single color, ones with RGB color for the entire strip, ones with three LEDs addressable at a time (RGB), and ones with each LED addressable (RGB).
The addressable ones require a controller of some sort or an Arduino like micro that is programmable.
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