Back Lit Laser Engraved Mirror Box

hello everyone,

just came up with this idea a couple of days ago, its an engraved mirror (from the back) and a cut box (with boxmaker).
the mirror is 6" square. the pictures tell the rest

i back lit the mirror with 12 LED's connected to a battery compartment. i cut a thin layer of acrylic, and made holes just the size of the led's just to keep them all organized, i had to cover all the led's with a small piece of tin foil to deflect the bright LED's from showing right through the glass.

laser engraved mirrors are a great idea, but sometimes they dont get the attention you would want, but with backlighting it, there is no way someone will pass by it and not notice it.

im not 100% done yet, i still need to rearrange the foil paper inside. im still debating if i should paint it or not.

enjoy :)

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Mohammed,

Frost the glass when you're done, or use a piece of side-lit frosted acrylic directly beneath the glass... no hot spots if done right. That will remove a lot of the extra work with the tinfoil.

hey dan,

how do you think i should frost the glass?

when lasering the backing of the mirror, it already frosts it, but its not enough to remove the hotspots as you mentioned. the problem is, the distance between the mirror and the LED's is very small, so any frosting doesnt help. but when i take the mirror about 12" away from the LED's it looked awesome, but its not logical.

thanks,

If the LEDs are too close (short box), then using a side-lit setup is the way to go. Run a random-orbit sander on some acrylic, aim the LEDs into the side of the acrylic, and place that beneath the mirror. That should give you a nice, even light across the entire design.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Hintz

If the LEDs are too close (short box), then using a side-lit setup is the way to go. Run a random-orbit sander on some acrylic, aim the LEDs into the side of the acrylic, and place that beneath the mirror. That should give you a nice, even light across the entire design.

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ill try that, my only problem is affixing the LED's to the edge of the acrylic. any ideas? (im thinking of cutting the side of the acrylic with U shaped holes that will let me put the led into the U, then i can hot glue it or tape it down)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mohammed Issa

(im thinking of cutting the side of the acrylic with U shaped holes that will let me put the led into the U, then i can hot glue it or tape it down)

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That's pretty much how I do side-lit jobs, except that I do a complete contour of the LED and just leave a small gap for the wires to come out.

Put the LED's on the back of the mirror, pointing towards the back of the box.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Hintz

Run a random-orbit sander on some acrylic, aim the LEDs into the side of the acrylic,

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What grit sand paper are you using?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Walt Langhans

What grit sand paper are you using?

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Haven't done it that way in a long time, but you'll want something fine... 320 or higher, 800 should give you a very uniform surface, depends upon how close the person will be viewing it.

There's also acrylic made now that doesn't show hotspots. It's commonly used in the sign trade, where channel letters are now mostly LED's. I've seen demos of it a number of times. It works very well.