I have an idea for a cheshire cat sign using the different properties of cast vs extruded acrylic. Per the examples that have been shown, one does not show etching very well under normal light. My thought is to make layers with the grin on one material and the cat on another. The grin will always show up, but the cat won’t unless lit, and then program the controller to dim the LEDs to off to make the cat fade away, leaving the grin. Any input on this? I have seen it done but I am not sure how they did it.
Cast shows engraves well with or without edge lighting - it’s going to be a white area.
Extruded doesn’t show well when engraved.
I’ve not edge lit extruded because it doesn’t show well unlit and I wasn’t clever enough to think about appearing/disappearing components like your thought. Unfortunately I don’t have any extruded around so I can’t test it for you 
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Painted / dyed the grin section with one type of paint that always is visible, and maybe used extruded for the cat, but painted / dyed the engraved lines with fluorescent marker ink, that only appears under UV / black light?
Ok…so I dont have a flame to flame polish my extruded etching…so it has a whitish look…
This is the best I could do to show the difference. Its never actually clear or "invisible but its not as stark white as the cast.
Here is a closeup detail of the two to show the cast makes a much better etch.
Cast on left, extruded on right.
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what if you coat the extruded engrave with a film of Super Glue? I’ve noticed that gets rid of most of the white “frost” from cast acrylic. Might make the extruded even more clear.
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Really, I’ve found that it clouds acrylic…thats why I use the weld on…
Hmm
Maybe I’ll hit it with a clear coat…
I used it to glue my escutcheon ring to a larger one so it was even with the GF button and it went clear in my engrave so now my ring is frosted looking on the top half and unfrosted on the bottom (I only glued the bottom because it was warping).
So what about floating the etch with Weld-on? That should melt the edges of the etch enough to do something similar to flame polishing and should dry clear.
@smcgathyfay Thank you for the test! I really appreciate it. It shows that the idea has merit and if the post treat can be found, I might just be able to pull it off. Especially if I can use a background to hide the etching somehow.
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@ben1 did you ever make this? I’m soooooooo curious and I have another idea of using this kind of technique but wondered how your experiments went?
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@Livein3D I had to back burner the project and haven’t made anything yet. I have several ideas, but no experiments. Sorry.
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Same with me — so many ideas — so little time to play —actually have a bit more time now, but my conscious won’t let me play because I am supposed to be studying. 
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watching where this goes
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I did some experimenting with acrylic weld solvent and engraves a little ways back. These are on cast clear acrylic.
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