Creating a Stencil Image for overlay on an LED Light?

I’m pretty new to using the Carvey, but I was wondering if it would be possible to carve a logo in a material that can be placed over an LED light. The effect would be like this:

Example

I work at a university and we’d probably use this in our studio to project the university logo on the background, and possibly for usage in live events.

Does anyone know what type of material would work best for something like this?

Thank you!

the picture just looks like a printed wall tbh.

If you’re looking for a projected logo from a cut-out template, just know that you will never get a sharp line unless you keep the focal point in mind. Just slapping a cutout on a lamp will never be sharp. Those types of projectors are probably laser-based.

I just checked out the site that I found the photo from, and it appears to be a service they offer for events:

https://www.talentproductions.ca/lighting/gobo/

They call it “gobo projection”. From looking at wikipedia, it seems like there are in fact some “plastic” or “transparancy gobos” that can work over LED lights, but they’re fairly new.

I guess I’d have to look into how hot our lights get, and which materials may be able to withstand the heat, if any.

You also may be right in that just placing a cutout may not be sufficient. I will have to experiment.

Thanks for the response!

I work at a movie theatre. When I have kids in my projection booth, they always ask if they can make shadow figures in the light beam. Obviously they can’t when a movie is playing :sunglasses:. But even if they were allowed, it would be pointless because the lens focuses on the screen, which is 30 yards away. So making a figure in front of the lens is just making a dark blob appear rather than a clear picture.

I know these types of projectors exist but that’s about it, so I just did some searching. It seems indeed you need to know the focal point of the lens and place the stencil right there at that distance.

I’m by no means no optics engineer, just speaking from my experience with regular divergent beam projectors.

If this is what I think this is, i had a light projector about 5 years ago that would project different seasonal designs on my house, What I had was nothing more than a slide projector; bright light that accepted circular disks. I’m not sure what material the pictures in the disks were made out of but my best guess would be just regular film. The designs were quite intricate and certainly too small to carve.

I’m sure this can be done, it would just take some trial and error with regards to the focal point others have mentioned. Kind of like reverse shadow casting as the light is the graphic you want to see.

The biggest problem your going to have with creating a gobo on a cnc mill is the size of the disk(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobo_(lighting))

The larger the gobo the light fitting also has to increase in size changing the optics. So getting a light with a gobo fitting would be best as it has the correct focal length already setup to give a crisp image.

The gobos I have worked with in the past have always been < 50mm(more like in the 30mm range) in diameter as you can guess milling on anything this size is difficult but not impossible you could do it with a v bit with a very fine tip and a thin sheet of aluminium on a perfectly flat bed.

However they way they are done in the industry is on steel(for Non LED Movers/gobo’s) with a water cutter/plasma cutter or if using aluminium a laser cutter. After all you don’t need depth you just need a cutout and these can do it far easier and quicker than a CNC mill can.

haha, that’s okay, I appreciate all the comments in here!

Thank you very much!

Yeah, the more I’m looking into this, the more I’m finding that the Carvey may not be best for what I want. I appreciate your response!

I think yes, but everything depends from the material