Edge lit gear head (6x7 inch, PG medium clear acrylic) .
I discussed some issues/observations in my earlier post on how gradient didn’t work for this particular design because the gradient was too steep and the power/speed combination too weak. The light bulbs were engraved very faint and even the head was not engraved completely.
On the second attempt I decided to engrave the outline of the head, the gears and the light bulbs as different elements. As there was no design blocking light from hitting the gears, they were engraved the shallowest (900/100/225/0.3height) and then the head (850) and the bulbs (800) -all other settings being the same on a GF basic. Engraving took about 55 min but removing the boundary would have cut it down to 35 min.
The pics are taken at the max and min setting of the base LEDs. There is some dust that clings to the acrylic due to static. I need to figure out if there is an antistatic cleaner that can be used (like pledge for wooden tables). Anyone know of a product for acrylic?
Overall I like the way this turned out eventually. These would be great as Halloween (fluorescent acrylic with black light LEDs maybe ) / Christmas themed lamps.
I’ve used it for years on motorcycle windshields - both standard acrylic and polycarbonate. No issues whatever (and it does take bug carcasses off nicely).
I moved your post to Beyond the Manual because that’s the only place we can discuss non-PG settings, and the settings are important to this post! That is beautiful work - SO clear all the way through!
) / Christmas themed lamps.
