DIY Illuminated Name letters

[PCUK]

I'm about to have a go at making my own illuminated name letters. 100m stainless name cut out at local engineers for £1.65 per letter. How thick is the perspex that is normally used on this type of letter? Also is there a layout plan anywhere for the positioning of the LEDs behind the letters, or will that be trial and error? Thanks. P.:nonchalance:

 

[jfm]

Perspex about 12mm. Get the ss workshop to cut it using same Cnc file. Polish edges. Rout groove in perspex for LED strips. Frosted / milky Perspex

 

[PCUK]

Thanks for all that. NBot sure whether the local engineers can cut Perspex, I'll check. Other than that I'll be cutting them out with a jigsaw and special blades.

 

[petem]

There's a really good DIY guide here

http://www.boatinghowto.com/f109/acrylic-backlit-boat-name-1433/

Let us know how you get on!

 

[PCUK]

Now that's given me some ideas. However I'm thinking of opaque Perspex strips following the outline of each letter rather than a shaped single sheet of perspex. I'll take some pics once I get started.

 

[jfm]

Thanks for all that. NBot sure whether the local engineers can cut Perspex, I'll check. Other than that I'll be cutting them out with a jigsaw and special blades.

Seems crazy to cut by hand. Surely create one file and get both halves of the job cut from it. Maybe get a plastic specialist to cut the Perspex.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Seems crazy to cut by hand. Surely create one file and get both halves of the job cut from it. Maybe get a plastic specialist to cut the Perspex.

Yep, that's exactly what I did a few years ago with my (abortive) diy lettering project. Where I went wrong was not making the letters big enough to carry a channel that was in turn big enough to get the led tape into. I'm on the road at the moment but when I get back home in a couple of days I'll post the pictures of my efforts.

 

[petem]

Seems crazy to cut by hand. Surely create one file and get both halves of the job cut from it. Maybe get a plastic specialist to cut the Perspex.

This is the company I use for laser cutting stencils http://www.artisanmodelmakers.co.uk/. They may be able to cut the acrylic for you or they can certainly make a stencil that you could use to cut the plastic with a jigsaw.

 

[PCUK]

Thanks all but I'm going a completely different way. Hard to describe but it'll all become clear once I take a pic' of the idea.

 

[vas]

I agree with JFM, just try and get the same shape file or EPS or whatever you use to the two lasers that are going to cut the ss and the perspex.
I doubt you can ever get a nice enough finish by cutting perspect by hand.
If you do plan to go that route, how about leaving a mm or two gap and making the perspect smaller so that the unavoidable lack of accuracy on the two pieces don't meet and don't show (much)

good luck

V.

 

[PCUK]

Planned to set the perspex back and as the edges will be opaque any discrepancies should not show. I can't see any need for the perspex to be flush with the outside of the letters anyway as it's main purpose seems to be to waterproof the electrics.

 

[Whitelighter]

Well, waterproof the electrics AND dissipate and diffuse the light do that you don't see the pin spots of the individual LEDs - which on any budget led install looks utter s!!t

 

[jfm]

Planned to set the perspex back and as the edges will be opaque any discrepancies should not show. I can't see any need for the perspex to be flush with the outside of the letters anyway as it's main purpose seems to be to waterproof the electrics.

Lots of ways to skin this cat. You can have M5 studs welded to reverse side of letters, then mount the SS letters on 25mm tubular posts so they float off the transom surface, then put water proof LED strip on back of letters shining at the transom. Lead the wires through the stand off posts. This looks ok ish, and has great advantage of not needing any Perspex. It doesn't look as good as pukka Perspex but it isn't terrible - I've seen it on a few boats

 

[petem]

Welding studs / posts to the back of 1mm letters will leave a nasty mark on the faces. 3mm should be ok, not sure about 2mm.

 

[petem]

A colleague has just built his own CNC machine so I'm going to have a go at this. I think my preferred method of construction will be 3mm stainless letters laser cut with mounting bolts welded to the back. We'll then have a layer of clear perspex that we'll CNC cut and also CNC route out the channels for the weatherproof LED's.

The perspex will be glued to the backs of the stainless letters forming a waterproof seal. The LED's will point to the transom and the letters will be set off from the transom by 20mm or so.

Will this work?

JFM, you said "Lead the wires through the stand off posts". Do you mean push the wires through the posts with the studs? How do you get them through the transom?

 

[jfm]

Welding studs / posts to the back of 1mm letters will leave a nasty mark on the faces. 3mm should be ok, not sure about 2mm.

Totally agree. I kinda assumed this would be a 3mm job anyway Pete, because anything less would be crummy
FWIW you can spin weld onto 1mm with no witness marks - Axon have done it for me. But 3mm is right for this job

 

[jfm]

Will this work?

In my book, not brilliantly. Having the letters stood off and the LEDs pointing back will always look a bit diy (I suggested it above in that context only)

The way to get a pro look is to have the letters stuck flat onto the GRP and have the light coming out of the edges of the milky Perspex letters. LEDs sit in channels routed into the perspex

JFM, you said "Lead the wires through the stand off posts". Do you mean push the wires through the posts with the studs? How do you get them through the transom?

Not quite. The stand off posts are tubes with room for both an M5 stud and a cable. Not concentric - the cable is to the side of the stud so to speak. You then drill two holes in transom, one for cable and one for stud, quite close to each other, both holes being totally hidden by the stand off post. You might have a plastic turned boss/bush at each end of the stand off post to keep the stand off posts (tubes) concentric with the stud and stop direct contract twixt gelcoat and tube end.
Bust as I say above for a pro job you don't want stand off posts to begin with

 

[petem]

Thanks and understood. I guess the stand off posts would allow for transom curvature but I don't know why I was worried about that as it's rarely an issue with flat letters.

If you reckon your way gives a good optical result then I'll give it a go as it has fewer parts (particularly metal ones) and only one small transom hole per letter. One question, do you set the LEDs into the Perspex using some clear SIKA and attach the whole thing to the boat using the same stuff?

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Rather belatedly, this was my approach.

1. get s/s letters cut, and then clear perspex lettering cut to exactly the same size by the same fabricators (using the same file):

(haven't got any pics of the s/s letter, sorry - I don't know where I've put them. Maybe I need an app for that )

2. get the perspex letter routed out to take led lighting strip

3. this was a few years ago, and the only led strip that I could get wasn't the natively waterproof stuff

4. my idea was to use nylon studs through the perspex as standoffs, and route the power cable through one of the studs

5. so if you put that all together you get this

Then my plan was to stick the s/s to the perspex using vhb, stand the perspex off the transom with some standard nylon fittings and voila! all done. I ran into a few problems though, and gave up. The principal issue is that my lettering is small (150mm high) cos my boat is small, and trying to do all this at small scale is quite difficult. If I was doing this again, I'd pick lettering with a fairly substantial stroke width, and then the routing in the perspex can be oversize. Another issue was the waterproofing of the led strip - that's easy to solve now, just use a waterproof strip! Finally, cutting the led strip to fit the lettering is tricky because you usually have to cut the strip at 5cm intervals, and again this is tricky with small lettering.

 

[petem]

Rather belatedly, this was my approach.

1. get s/s letters cut, and then clear perspex lettering cut to exactly the same size by the same fabricators (using the same file):

(haven't got any pics of the s/s letter, sorry - I don't know where I've put them. Maybe I need an app for that )

2. get the perspex letter routed out to take led lighting strip

3. this was a few years ago, and the only led strip that I could get wasn't the natively waterproof stuff

4. my idea was to use nylon studs through the perspex as standoffs, and route the power cable through one of the studs

5. so if you put that all together you get this

Then my plan was to stick the s/s to the perspex using vhb, stand the perspex off the transom with some standard nylon fittings and voila! all done. I ran into a few problems though, and gave up. The principal issue is that my lettering is small (150mm high) cos my boat is small, and trying to do all this at small scale is quite difficult. If I was doing this again, I'd pick lettering with a fairly substantial stroke width, and then the routing in the perspex can be oversize. Another issue was the waterproofing of the led strip - that's easy to solve now, just use a waterproof strip! Finally, cutting the led strip to fit the lettering is tricky because you usually have to cut the strip at 5cm intervals, and again this is tricky with small lettering.

Interesting Jimmy. I hadn't considered the bulb / cutting interval but looking at the web there are some strips that can be cut at 25mm intervals. Looking at your pics, if I'm reading them correctly, you had the LED's pointing to hull. Is this correct, if so what was your reasoning for this?

Incidentally, is heat even an issue with these lights? Bedazzled make a big deal of this and advise a voltage regulator to guarantee a stable 12v.

PCUK, how are you getting on?