Acrylic light box

[nolanola]

Hello forum.
I'm looking for some guidance on how to make an acrylic lightbox sign 18" x 12" x 4".
We are going to laser the 6 pieces and glued them together. The LEDs will be placed on the 4" side (the edge) facing inside.
What glue should we use? What should pay attention to?

Thank you.

 

[Gino]

Weld0n 3 and WeldOn 16. I don't know how you will not have multiple hot spots from your description of building it ??

 

[JBurton]

Weld0n 3 and WeldOn 16. I don't know how you will not have multiple hot spots from your description of building it ??

I would have agreed, but I just pushed this one out the door and it looks great. Ended up doubling the modules because we received extra and the power supply was woefully underloaded.

What should pay attention to?

Make sure you have a white coating inside the cabinet. Indirect lighting like these have a tendency to reflect the paint color and 'contaminate' the white light. We painted the referenced cabinet purple, and had to skin the inside with white to keep it from glowing purple on the opposite side.

 

[JBurton]

Oh wait, you want the returns to glow as well? Oldschool simplest way would have been to get some neon fabbed, mount it freestanding vertically, and use the lightbox as a 'cover'. That or a U lamp. It's going to be pretty hard with LED's though...

 

[Johnny Best]

Weldon 3 should be good enough for keeping acrylic together at the seams. Just do not spill it on the faces, use the needle tip to get into seams, is it clear acrlic or the frosted white as you show, glue sets up quickly. VHB tape for LED on the sides

 

[nolanola]

Thank you!
The edges don't need to be illuminated.
The plan now is to use COB LED tape on the edges and block the light on the edges with black vinyl on the inside.

 

[Bradley D]

I think you would get better illumination if you added a baffle in the middle and make it 6 inches deep. The baffle could be made out of Lexan and would provide a safer surface to mount your LEDs illuminating both directions. Let us know if your method works. It might just be small enough to get even illumination.

 

[nolanola]

Made some progress, looks good so far.
I'm thinkin about a way to suspend a ring made of led's in the center of the box. Maybe zipties from all for corners.

 

[JBurton]

Only problem with zipties in the corners, aside from the jank factor, you'll end up with dark spots where you mount the zip tie to the box. Why not cut an additional piece of acrylic and stick the leds there?

 

[Johnny Best]

I think Nola is using a talent for figuring out a solution.

 

[artifacture]

Here is one I did. I did a wood frame so it was sturdy and serviceable, and stuck acrylic to the outside. In this case, they wanted the face white, but not showing light through which turned out to be a challenge. 3015 was not as opaque as it appeared once there was real light behind it. Even doubled up it wasn't enough, so I think I had to use a piece of black on the inside and paint the back white so it still reflected the light around.

 

[nolanola]

Happy ending.
Thank you.

 

[Gino]

I take it, you used the zip-tie method ??

How does one go about servicing this when something goes wrong or is one face not glued fast ??

 

[DarkerKat]

Happy ending.
Thank you.

illumination came out surprisingly well, what LEDs did you use?

 

[Johnny Best]

I like happy endings! It is nice that you learned how to make it look so nice, now you can give advice when someone wants to make one.

 

[nolanola]

I take it, you used the zip-tie method ??

How does one go about servicing this when something goes wrong or is one face not clued fast ??

I promised a double sided sign first and convinced the client that they need a single sided one after because it will be sitting on a shelf, so no zip ties, the LED's are glued to the back wall.
The order was placed on Thursday and they needed it delivered on Monday.

I used a clear plastic angle on the top and the bottom with some clear removable double sided tape that keeps the back wall in place for an access.

 

[nolanola]

illumination came out surprisingly well, what LEDs did you use?

I used SMD Tape Light – 24V along with a little 24w power supply with a plug supplied by Zlight.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

The National Electric Code (NEC Section 411) requires low voltage lighting must have a NRTL listing. Light fixtures need to meet UL standards (or be approved by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory) and display the Laboratory's sticker. Most coding authorities subscribe to NEC standards, and will not allow installation of a non-recognized and unstickered electrically illuminated appliance (including internally illuminated signs). Violation of these standards is considered an ordinance violation and can be prosecuted (usually as a civil offense).

 

[nolanola]

The National Electric Code (NEC Section 411) requires low voltage lighting must have a NRTL listing. Light fixtures need to meet UL standards (or be approved by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory) and display the Laboratory's sticker. Most coding authorities subscribe to NEC standards, and will not allow installation of a non-recognized and unstickered electrically illuminated appliance (including internally illuminated signs). Violation of these standards is considered an ordinance violation and can be prosecuted (usually as a civil offense).

Thank you for letting me know.

 

[boldmarksigns]

The National Electric Code (NEC Section 411) requires low voltage lighting must have a NRTL listing. Light fixtures need to meet UL standards (or be approved by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory) and display the Laboratory's sticker. Most coding authorities subscribe to NEC standards, and will not allow installation of a non-recognized and unstickered electrically illuminated appliance (including internally illuminated signs). Violation of these standards is considered an ordinance violation and can be prosecuted (usually as a civil offense).

Good to know, thanks for sharing this.