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A bit of advice needed on a lightbox please
Hi there
I am supplying a new sign to go into an existing light box frame. What is there at the moment is a sheet of clear Perspex with printed vinyl applied to it in one sheet.I am going to supply new acrylic. I was going to use a sheet of white opaque (in two pieces it’s about 4meters long) and apply the graphics to that. I don’t want to complicate it, so i’m just going to apply blue translucent vinyl and leave the white areas of the opaque sheet blank.
I think i’m doing this the correct way, but I thought I should double check with everybody on here first. I don’t do too much shop signage, this one is for a friend’s Mum and Dad. I’ve done a couple of light boxes before.
Should I be looking at around 50% opacity for the opal sheet? Any other advice you can offer me please?
I’ve attached a photo of the initial designs, i’m going to use the top one I think.
Thanks in advance
Liam
p.s the design doesn’t go right to the edge of the sign, it’s just how it cropped on instagram
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10 Replies
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I`m sure thats how we do it, using light box vinyl for the colour, so it also lights up alittle.
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The Perspex reference you need is Opal 050 and use translucent vinyl.
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Thank you both. I thought 50 and opal came together somehow, so thanks for that Mike.
Liam
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Hi,
sorry to bring this up again. The last time i did a light box i used the opal 50 in white and then applied coloured text to the top. The problem was, when switched on you could see the shape of the tubes.Luckily that customer wasn’t bothered, but this customer is a bit more fussy so i wanted to get it right. So can i see the tubes because of the depth of the light box and the tubes being close to the board?
How will i know if i am going to see the tubes on this one? Is it just trial and error. I was wondering if i need to apply light difuser white to the back of the opal or will this block out too much light?
I am going a bit mad thinking about this.
thanks
Liam
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First thing is make sure you order "050" not "50".
You will only see the tubes if the box thickness is less than 150mm. If it is a slimline box of 100mm then you my friend are stuffed and you will see the tubes. I have never fathomed out why people use slimline extrusion without the old fashioned bubble faced acrylic fascia. Just because its cheaper I guess and no experiance or concience or work ethics. (chat.) (hot) (:) -
We test on the bench before fitting.
We did have the same problem with the last light box we bought, they were too far spaced out, we contacted the manufacturer and they replaced the box
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Also a tip when applying a coloured background with the letters cut out. Do not weed out the lettering! Apply the application tape over the unweeded vinyl. Apply as per normal then weed out the lettering once stuck down. This will keep the application tape under the same stress all along its length and avoids creasing the background vinyl due to different tollerances between the weeded and unweeded areas. 😀
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Denise, you shouldn’t have to test your box, the tubes should be at 200mm centres for even illumination, and as I said earlier the box has to be a minimum of 150mm, 6" in old money deep front to back.
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Thanks for your replies. And thanks Mike in particular for sharing your knowledge. That is a great tip about not weeding. I will be sure to use that. I should be ok as i’m sure the box is thicker than 6”. I will post up a picture when completed (if it goes right!!).
Bit worried about the join in the middle, but i’m going to order the panels with the rebate join pre cut.
thanks again
Liam
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Hi, Liam,
I dunno how much of a problem expansion and contraction due to ambient temp fluctuation is in the UK, but here darkest (warmest) Africa it needs to be taken into account.
Also, use 5mm Perspex 050, not 3mm on a large box. You can glue the 2 pieces of Perpex together with Acryfix or Tensol or similar, but leave clearance for expansion at the sides of the box. This of course assumes you have a light tray that drops in from the top. If you have to remove the Perspex to service the box, you may have a problem with a 4m piece of Perspex (especially with a join, which is the weak spot) Imagine removing that on site to replace tubes…….different than fitting in the workshop!
WRT the number of tubes: I measure the distance where the tube is closest to the Perspex, and use double that amount for the spacing between the tubes. The deeper the box, the less tubes you need, and the more even the illumination is.
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