Optimal size for Acrylic Edge Lit Lamp

I’ve been making Acrylic LED Edgelit lamps like crazy lately, but I’ also noticing lately the tops of them just don’t get as much light. Some of them it seems the light doesn’t make it to the top at all. So I’m wondering if anyone has done any research or studies into the best size for an LED Edgelit lamp?

Also, I’m wondering if anyone has done any research or studies into SCORING a design vs engraving a design, and which transmit the light better?

It has something to do with the depth of the engrave on the acrylic. I believe @PrintToLaser has modified the depth of the engraves across the design to cause the light to travel farther…he might be able to chime in.

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Does anyone sand, polish and buff the bottom edge? I noticed the cut line is not great and it was on my list to try to improve that to see if it helped any.

I’ve done a very quick flame polish with a propane torch on some exposed edges, but the laser-cut line has been plenty for me to transmit light from LEDs.

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Hi @wizaerd!
As the light travels up from the base, engraving blocks the light, like casting a shadow. The fix is to increase the depth of the engrave as the design or text goes up. By separating the design into sections assigning each different colors, the user interface recognizes each color as a separate operation, so you can assign a higher power progressively as it goes up.
It doesn’t have to be much at all, just enough to be deeper so the light just touches it. Of course text is easy, a graphic is more challenging.

Scoring has the same effect, anything penetrating the surface casts a shadow to everything above it.

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