Tonight is full of great builds and I’ve been slacking.
I’m blown away by the possibilities created by bringing the base in-house. The base could become as much of the art as the acrylic.
Dang! I’m going to have to order a short reel of LEDs and get experimenting, yeah, right, right after I get caught up with everything else.
Wow! Great design and execution!
Now that’s what I call using your tools effectively and efficiently! And if at some point you wanted them to be all wood you could cover the printed ring with PG veneer.
These are great! Since we don’t have a 3D printer … I will be trying out the LED stand shared by @kittski … who also posted the link to the strip sets below.
Last night I ordered ten of the .5 M strip sets from:
Also ten of the adapters:
I waited until we received our Golden ticket to spend money on supplies and materials. Seklema mat, everything sold in the Glowforge shop except the leather (for now), glues, lights, clamps, etc., etc.
You will have a blast, now that you’re all stocked up with everything you need. Wait…what am I saying?..we’ll never have everything we’ll need! There will always be something else to lure us in. 
There are tons of posts about LEDs and edge lit things…some of them mine…but do you perhaps have a link to @kittski’s LED stand? I did a search but I didn’t have enough info. to narrow it down. I may have seen it when it was posted, but don’t remember.
Had looked quickly earlier this morning without success … here it is now! There is a second post on down further with the file. Thank you again, @kittski .
Thanks for sharing all that detail! I love edge-lit signs, but the same old bases are getting boring. Great inspiration to take it to the next level!
Nice!
If it were something you were going to build repeatedly and wanted to cut down production time, you could also make a silicone mold for the base with the top part and slot all built in as one piece, then you could cast resin copies in any color, in multitudes of materials very quickly.
Or, cut the rings from standard size hollow tubes like acrylic or ABS, then laser the tops to fit.
Long term dream is to get into plastic recycling for parts like this using an injection mold or other type of setup. I’m am enthralled by Dave Hakkens at Precious Plastic and his goals. One of the winter shop products is building the plastic shredder. I have a lead on a water jet and laser cutting steel shop close by to get the parts of the shredder cut. The first project would be to make HDPE mallet heads, faced with leather on one side and some other type of medium density surface. Everyone needs a shop mallet, but they don’t know it, or two or three depending on the amount of persuading needed.
Ok. Updated OP to offer the STLs. Getting them to snap fit is a challenge, in that your 3D printer settings and precision will be different from mine. Yes, it should not have error in the final print, but getting mine set up within machinists’ tolerances is a lot of energy that in the end isn’t needed for my uses.
Really nice pairing!
great step by step tutorial, thanks 
Thanks for sharing your process. Looks like the bases are holding up well - plus, they look great!
Thanks. Just added a few more pics of other designs on top post. Making a wider base now for bigger signs.
Wow! Great project and write up! Now I have to fire up my 3d printer and get to work 
@marmak3261 - wow, that is seriously the coolest idea ever. Thank you for sharing it! I have a couple of friends who might be really excited about recycling plastics like this. I’m going to have to ignore my GF for a bit and go learn more about this process.
@marmak3261 - this is a really clever idea. Thanks for sharing all the fun stuff that makes it work! These look amazing too, great job.
Thank you @marmak3261 for the files! This is what I made for a friend’s 42nd birthday party that was themed Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…needless to say it was the only present like this! It was a big hit.
Nice job on the gift ! Came out really well. (Only think I would have added is a small “Don;t forget your towel” on the bottom 
I had thought about that … but thought it might be too busy with all the words?
The first one I printed I forgot to do it in reverse so the good side is flat…so I reprinted for the gift. I took the first one to work and plugged it in at my desk…my boss walks by quickly and says I really thought it would have dolphins in it…I told her no we’re all into babels here. 
Today is being spent engraving tiles for a horseshoe throwing competition next weekend for a relative…then I hope to get back to edgelit designs…I have a few ideas I want to play with to see how they come out.
Wish we had an “edgelit” specified section in the community…occasionally I find some I missed before.
