After I brought a string of 150 led Christmas lights for £15. I noticed how the patterns alternated every other LED. This lead my mind thinking that a twin screen edge lit sign would be possible that had alternating words/ pictures etc. The idea being to place one sheet of perspex in front of another. So here goes!

Step 1:

First of all I print out on computer what I would like engraved on the perspex. In this case it was a friend of mine Chloe. I wanted her first name on the front screen and her second name to appear on the back screen.

Step 2:

Next I drew in permanent marker onto the perspex with the sheets underneath. Then flipped the sheets over and did this again so I had better reference of the words whilst engraving from the back. I don't know why, but edge lit stuff always works better engraved from the back rather than the front, once illuminated.

Step 3:

The engraving begins....

Step 4:

How I had to find a way to sandwich the layers of perspex together whilst still having enough room to fit inn all those LEDs. So I layered some bits of MDF like so.

Step 5:

Next step was to mount as many of those LEDs as I could in the space that I had. I figured I could just about fit 96 of my 150 LEDs into the space available. So I drilled the holes into another piece of MDF.

Step 6:

After the insertation of the 96 LEDs, it resembled something out of the large hadrol colider! But worked very well, lining up nicely with the screen 'sandwich'.

Step 7:

I then put the whole lot together including a base plate and gave it sides from thin strips of fibre board.

Step 8:

The results: As you can see, the alternating LED patterns worked well in displaying the front words then back words, or both together. They can also dim slowly between the 2, flash etc.