Although I used these techniques to create art, the real beauty of this is that you can create any 3D object you want with a laser cutter, whether it's the object itself, or a negative of the object encased in a block, as I did. In essence, you're turning your laser cutter into a 3D printer with a resolution limited only by the thickness of your material.
Have you ever seen acrylic that’s been edge-lit using LEDs or similar? The light normally just passes through, but wherever there’s a scratch you’ll find that the light refracts and it appears quite brightly. People engrave messages and patterns onto plastic sheeting to make it really stand out when lit. Well, what if you did the same thing, but instead of just etching the surface, you cut sections out of it and then scuffed up the parts that had been cut? Now the entire thickness of the sheet begins to glow in those areas!
In a natural progression, this led me to realize that you could apply this technique in layers, allowing you to create a 3D object in the sheets of stacked acrylic, so that it appears to be frozen in the stack and glow brightly. What I’ll explain below is exactly how I went about this, and how you can easily replicate my results. It may seem complicated, but if you follow along one step at a time you can make it appear that anything you want is “frozen” in light in a stack of plastic sheets!
Before I begin, allow me to thank my fellow members at LVL1, Louisville’s Hackerspace. We have all kinds of cool tools, like 3D printers, 3-axis CNC machines, and the laser cutter I used to make this. However, the people you will find there are the most incredible resource you will ever come across. In particular, this project would not have been possible without my good friend Blenster, who stayed and helped me with this over the course of days, and only offered encouragement when the first version didn’t work out and I had only 24 hours left. He’s like a real-life Good Guy Greg. Also, thanks to Tyler for his technical help and to Chris for providing me with the acrylic glue that the White Star Balloon team had not yet huffed. If you’re anywhere near Louisville, you’re truly doing yourself a disservice by not checking it out.
Anyway, on to the project!
Have you ever seen acrylic that’s been edge-lit using LEDs or similar? The light normally just passes through, but wherever there’s a scratch you’ll find that the light refracts and it appears quite brightly. People engrave messages and patterns onto plastic sheeting to make it really stand out when lit. Well, what if you did the same thing, but instead of just etching the surface, you cut sections out of it and then scuffed up the parts that had been cut? Now the entire thickness of the sheet begins to glow in those areas!
In a natural progression, this led me to realize that you could apply this technique in layers, allowing you to create a 3D object in the sheets of stacked acrylic, so that it appears to be frozen in the stack and glow brightly. What I’ll explain below is exactly how I went about this, and how you can easily replicate my results. It may seem complicated, but if you follow along one step at a time you can make it appear that anything you want is “frozen” in light in a stack of plastic sheets!
Before I begin, allow me to thank my fellow members at LVL1, Louisville’s Hackerspace. We have all kinds of cool tools, like 3D printers, 3-axis CNC machines, and the laser cutter I used to make this. However, the people you will find there are the most incredible resource you will ever come across. In particular, this project would not have been possible without my good friend Blenster, who stayed and helped me with this over the course of days, and only offered encouragement when the first version didn’t work out and I had only 24 hours left. He’s like a real-life Good Guy Greg. Also, thanks to Tyler for his technical help and to Chris for providing me with the acrylic glue that the White Star Balloon team had not yet huffed. If you’re anywhere near Louisville, you’re truly doing yourself a disservice by not checking it out.
Anyway, on to the project!
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Signing UpStep 1: Step 1: What youll need
You’re going to need the following items to make this project:
1. Google Sketchup – the free version is fine.
2. Sketchup plugins from sketchucation.com – Slicemodeler, Export to DXF or STL, and STL Importer are all free
3. Lots of acrylic sheets -- my project used about $30 worth.
4. Acrylic glue/cement
5. A Dremel-type rotary tool and burr bit.
6. Whatever lighting you desire – LED, CFL, etc.
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What does this look like when photographed from the flat face, with lighting on the edges face?
also cant seem to find the plugin for a free Sketchup?
http://www.cadspan.com/tools
I didn't see the free plugin download just a bit below where it says free trial
when I saw free trial I though I was in the wrong place
http://www.123dapp.com/