Multicolored-Illuminated Plexi????

[MrMayhem]

Is it possible to illuminate a design etched into plexi with various colors? Or will it have to be done in layers? Each layer containing it's own colored LEDs? The design I have in mind is five basic colors, RED, GREEN, GOLD and the tuffies BLACK and WHITE (a skull). Is that possible? I thought of using REALLY dark tinted plexi for the skul and etcheing the skull into that. and making it the bottom layer. And using CLEAR plexi for the subsquent layers. But will that give me the "look" of a clean "white" skull??? That's the best I can figure out as of now...unless someone here has given it a go and gone a different route, or has any helpful suggestions???? Appreciate the help/suggestions in advance...thanks!

[OvRiDe]

There are several companies that sell LEDs that contain Red Green and Blue elements inside a single LED housing. All you would need to do is come up with a method of turning on the combination of elements to produce the desired color.

[MrMayhem]

I'm sure there are but I don't think I explained myself very well...the image I'd like to have etched has all of those colors in it. basically it's a black background, which upon rests a gold rimmed shield whose field is green and has a white\ivory skull with gold wings and crossed swords on it. I'd like to have all these elements "illuminated" some how, and I'm not sure if the method I purposed would be the correct way to go...BUT if you know of any of these companies and or individuals that can do this kind of work and you've got some kind of contact info for them please post them!?!?!? Thanks for the info tho!!!

[OvRiDe]

Ahhh.. Now I get it.. ok.. well disregard my above message.. heh

Interesting idea.. sounds like it would look great, but I have no idea how to proceed.

[wingman358]

I think if you made a new layer of plex for every color, you could probably pull it off. You would just need to etch into each layer what you want to see (for example, on the yellow layer, you would etch the wings). I'm not sure exactly how it would work out, but I am sure that you could figure something out if you sat down with some sheets of plex and tested ideas.

[dgrmkrp]

I did try some etching... by hand... al what i can say is.. you need good thin plexy, so in case you do succeed in layering the 4 elements/colours, if you move sideways, you don't get a different picture. In turn, that means you need small leds (maybe smaller than 3mm.. which means less brightness per given number..), a lite,steady hand and patience.. plus trial and error... foe expirience..

[MrMayhem]

well I'll get started on it this weekend and if the results turn out "semi" decently I'll get some pics and post em...Going to start off using the thinnest spec plexi I can find (clear) and also try using some heavily tinted plexi if I can find it locally...I'll get some test peices done some time later today...thanks for the help and the encouragement!!!

[tybrenis]

Read this.

http://metku.net/index.html?sect=view&n=1&path=mods/router/index_eng

[jdbnsn]

I don't know how helpful this will be, but in medical imaging all sorts of use dyes are used to bring out contrast between things that would otherwise look the same. There are some chemical "markers" used that will fluoresce different colors under ultra-violet light to differentiate structures. It may be an expensive route (I have never looked for them), but if not, you could use different colored UV dyes to paint your image and it would be colorless until the UV light is turned on. This would allow for a single sheet. Again, it will likely come down to cost vs labor.