I was originally going to try to make an additional project and post that also but time has gotten away from me. I just had my first and only in-person art show of the year this past weekend due to COVID, hence why I felt the need to finally make this sign. Couple that with an early fall in MN I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t been able to make a real “Lamp” project.
I’ve had the idea to make an edge lit sign that can hang on the walls of my tent/booth at art shows that clearly tells everyone that all prints/products are made in MN, and that I accept credit cards via Square.
I first started off with a test piece to see if I had the right S/F for acrylic vcarving and a proof of concept.
Luckily everything seemed to look perfect, so I started to draw up the final design with the state outline and the Square logo and CC logo.
Then it was just a simple matter of cutting the acrylic, once again cutting went pretty much perfectly. I cut the design on the backside so I had made sure to mirror the image.
I managed to get some pretty nice edges on the outer contour.
Now came the hard part, I had decided it needed a frame since it would be hanging on my wall as opposed to a freestanding display that is just lit from the bottom. I have never made a frame before, I know seems kinda weird that a photographer who sells prints has never made a frame, thats one of the many reasons why I sell metal prints with inset frame. I won’t go into too many details about how I made the frame since it wasnt on the shapeoko but lets just say it took me 3 times before I got satisfactory results.
Then I used a piece of black plexi as a solid background and made a couple standoff bars that run down the side. This is where the velcro mounts and gives me the space to mount the battery and LED controller behind the frame.
And finally the finished product in its natural environment! Unfortunately the battery that I had for this only lasted about 6-7 or about an hour short of the full day at the show, so maybe figure a way to conceal/hide a cord that can run to a larger battery that will run all day guaranteed.
EDIT: All the designs Elements in Carbide Create and indivudually in a zip folder
Made in MN Sign.c2d (743.5 KB)
Edgelitsignelements.zip (24.5 KB)