I am sure it is possible. I have just never tried to do something like this before.
I do not have a Pro (yet…) so the largest I could make this would be about 30"x60" (judging by the largest letter I could cut on 12"x20")
My thought would be to cut the letters then glue them to a larger piece of clear acrylic. I can get 48"x96" from Home Depot, but I might need to cut it down. And then hang it by bolting the four corners to the wall.
Is there a better way to attach the letters and/or hang the sign on the wall?
For attaching acrylic to the wall look for “standoffs”, they come in lots of finishes and sizes and will look much nicer than bolts.
You may also like deepnest.io for packing the maximum letters into a cut space.
At 30x 60 I’d suggest 1/2" acrylic for the base, or at the very least 3/8. There will be a lot of flex in anything thinner. You can then go down the rabbit hole of flame polishing acrylic edges
I had not considered “standoffs” because I thought it would “sturdier” if it was flush with the wall. If not flush with the wall it would definitely need to be 1/2" thick for the backing.
My wife just suggested using clear acrylic spacers behind some of the letters also, if it is offset from the wall. To give it more strength, as if it were flush with the wall.
Thanks for the link. I will have to check that out. I have already converted the image to an SVG and separated the paths I want for each color. I have not broken out each letter yet, but I might need to do that if I want to maximize the cutting.
There are several free word art sites on the internet that can create the layout for you and you could break it up into separate panels (don’t you have a pro?)
Yeah, they used one of those sites to generate that image. http://wordart.com is what they used, I think. I already converted it to an SVG and broke it up by color.
Nope… I wish I had gotten the Pro, but I didn’t know I was going to love this machine so much… I ordered the Plus. When it had to be sent back for repairs, I asked if I could pay extra to upgrade to a Pro, but I was told “no.”
If you cut them from mdf you would have a virtually unlimited number of colors to choose from with paints. Maybe against black acrylic with a 1/2 inch or so standoff (you could just cut and glue some small clear posts)
My first thought was whiteboard for a backer - cheap and available at regular hardware stores. Then painted MDF letters as others stated. Of course, then you’ve got to buy all that paint.
… but I’m cheap, and use cheap materials wherever possible. If someone was willing to pay me to make something, I think colored acrylic on clear would be cool…
I think colored acrylic on clear would be cooler too.
I am guessing it would cost around $250-300 in materials alone to be completely acrylic. But shouldn’t it last longer too?
The wall is gray that it will be on, and they picked the colors of the words. They were going to just have it painted on the wall, but my wife started asking “what if” we laser cut it…
Yeah, sun light should not be a problem. This is a large room with only one window on the far side.
If I cut the letters out of MDF I could probably save $75 on materials, but I would still need to purchase 8 paint colors. I am not sure if it would look as good, or even be worth the extra time…
I only looked at the price of clear acrylic for the backing. I should see if opaque white or black is cheaper.
Gotcha. I was afraid you would say it’ll melt or something like that. I’ll have to keep an eye on that suncatcher I made out of acrylic for my mom then.
