Lightbox projects
Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:01 pm
Happy New year to everyone, hope it is a good year for you!
I thought I would post some pics of a couple of projects I did just before the annual festivities. Both were presents for friends. The first is the Harley Davidson logo and the second is the Pittsburgh Steelers logo. Using the Harley Davidson one as an example, the basic concept is as follows;
1. Glue some veneer (figured crown Ash) which will transmit light to a polycarbonate sheet and let it sit until the glue has fully cured. I sand the polycarbonate with 80 grit on BOTH sides, one to promote adhesion and the other to act as a diffuser.
2. Spray a lacquer over the veneer (2 coats), to help it bind together and reduce the risk of it 'popping' off the plastic when machined.
3. Machine a pocket and inlay black dyed poplar veneer (which I bought) for the black bar and shield background.
4.Spray lacquer over the veneer again - 2 coats..
5. Apply a vinyl mask (sign makers vinyl) to the lacquered face once the lacquer has cured completely.
6. Machine out the lettering and any graphics.
7. In the case of this design, I used masking tape to cover up the Harley Davidson lettering.
8. Spray a transparent orange colour (in this case I used Createx Candy2O Grabber Orange) into the areas which are to be orange in the final image. 4 coats were necessary here. This paint is a bit difficult to use as it bleeds and runs but it give a fantastic result. I use Createx bleed checker 4030 to help and then use their auto borne transparent sealer to promote adhesion.
9. Peel off the masking tape and the vinyl mask - I use a Makita heat gun set to 200C (about 390F) to warm the vinyl and soften the glue to aid peeling. This can be a tedious process!
10. Sand the panel flat and then apply finish lacquer.
11. Make a box 100mm (4") deep to house some LED lighting and glue it all together and thats it - well almost, I paint the inside of the box white to reflect the light better!
Both these light boxes use figured crown Ash veneer. The Harley Davidson box is plywood with black poplar veneer applied to all surfaces and finished matt black. The steelers box uses grey Poplar instead, finished satin. The 'steel' ring on the Steelers box was simply painted in using aluminium paint - I ran out of time on this one - it was finished literally about an hour before I gave it to the recipient - phew! The Candy colours I used also ran a bit but it seemed to accentuate the end result so I left it. The Steelers box is 400mm (16") square and the Harley one is 400mm (16") x 350mm (13.8").
As an aside, I only had RGB colour changing LEDs in stock so these signs will change colour but I have not included photos of them as they do not reflect the respective brands (but it is a bit of additional fun!).
I thought I would post some pics of a couple of projects I did just before the annual festivities. Both were presents for friends. The first is the Harley Davidson logo and the second is the Pittsburgh Steelers logo. Using the Harley Davidson one as an example, the basic concept is as follows;
1. Glue some veneer (figured crown Ash) which will transmit light to a polycarbonate sheet and let it sit until the glue has fully cured. I sand the polycarbonate with 80 grit on BOTH sides, one to promote adhesion and the other to act as a diffuser.
2. Spray a lacquer over the veneer (2 coats), to help it bind together and reduce the risk of it 'popping' off the plastic when machined.
3. Machine a pocket and inlay black dyed poplar veneer (which I bought) for the black bar and shield background.
4.Spray lacquer over the veneer again - 2 coats..
5. Apply a vinyl mask (sign makers vinyl) to the lacquered face once the lacquer has cured completely.
6. Machine out the lettering and any graphics.
7. In the case of this design, I used masking tape to cover up the Harley Davidson lettering.
8. Spray a transparent orange colour (in this case I used Createx Candy2O Grabber Orange) into the areas which are to be orange in the final image. 4 coats were necessary here. This paint is a bit difficult to use as it bleeds and runs but it give a fantastic result. I use Createx bleed checker 4030 to help and then use their auto borne transparent sealer to promote adhesion.
9. Peel off the masking tape and the vinyl mask - I use a Makita heat gun set to 200C (about 390F) to warm the vinyl and soften the glue to aid peeling. This can be a tedious process!
10. Sand the panel flat and then apply finish lacquer.
11. Make a box 100mm (4") deep to house some LED lighting and glue it all together and thats it - well almost, I paint the inside of the box white to reflect the light better!
Both these light boxes use figured crown Ash veneer. The Harley Davidson box is plywood with black poplar veneer applied to all surfaces and finished matt black. The steelers box uses grey Poplar instead, finished satin. The 'steel' ring on the Steelers box was simply painted in using aluminium paint - I ran out of time on this one - it was finished literally about an hour before I gave it to the recipient - phew! The Candy colours I used also ran a bit but it seemed to accentuate the end result so I left it. The Steelers box is 400mm (16") square and the Harley one is 400mm (16") x 350mm (13.8").
As an aside, I only had RGB colour changing LEDs in stock so these signs will change colour but I have not included photos of them as they do not reflect the respective brands (but it is a bit of additional fun!).