I finally finished my acrylic edge lit Stack Light… a very long project. I’ve really enjoyed working on it and have learned a lot, as well. I do consider it a success, but the finished project reminds me of finding a blender in a souvenir shop. One thing of many that I’ve learned is that my next one is going to be designed differently. This was also quite expensive, due to the extensive use of PG thick clear acrylic.
it’s 14.5” from top to bottom. The base is 5” x 5” and the 16 upright acrylic panels are each 10.5” long and 4” wide. The 16 panels create a 4”x 4” square ‘tower’ of light. Each panel is engraved with various sea creatures, courtesy of my Noun Project subscription. Many of the ‘bubbles’ are circles cut completely through, which adds some extra sparkle. The panels are free-standing and sunk into the top piece by about 1.5” and held in tightly only by a well-measured square hole. They can be arranged in different ways, if desired.
The base was made of thick Proofgrade MDF, sprayed with matte black paint, with a hole for the power cord and lined haphazardly with some self-stick craft mirrors to help reflect the lights. On top of the box are 2 layers of frosted acrylic and about 7 more layers of MDF, three of which are the frame that holds a clear acrylic panel that suspends the stack of big panels above the box of lights.
This is the 3 layer thick section holding the clear panel
The whole thing is pretty heavy. The part holding the panels is not fastened to the box….partly because I couldn’t come up with a good way to do it, but also, because I need to have access to the lights in case of malfunction.
As many of you know, these edge lit lights are extremely difficult to photograph because they’re so bright…but here goes anyway.
This is the box part of the base with the top section removed, showing the lights and little mirrors inside.
This is it without the lights on
I had to look that phrase up. Thank you, Jules.
