Slimline LED letters, advice on how they are made?

[David McDonald]

Hi Jamie

They look like solid block acrylic with embedded LEDs and vinyl wrapped edges. We’ve made a few in the past but don’t really trade supply. I think applelec might do them? They are just thick Opal acrylic (led grade to make the glow more even), CNC router cut and with a channel in the back to put the leds in, we then filled the channel with clear resin dome liquid to fully waterproof the leds. We could leave ours underwater all day.

The block acrylic is quite expensive and they take a while to CNC but they do look great.

I’m sure others will list alternative manufacturers

Cheers

Dave

[Jamie Palmer]

Thanks David, will order some bits and get the Cnc going. Loved the clean finish on these and like I said the nice spread of light. Thanks

[Robert Lambie]

Yes, David is correct. LED Acrylic with a channel in the rear and vinyl around the edges.
I have the tiny bright LEDs in my workshop required for this. I bought them a few months back to get creative with. I don’t mean to make this type of sign, but I did consider it, but the cost of the sheet material to make a sample up put me off.
As David says, Applelec will most likely offer these to the trade.
We covered a story on UKSB that Harrison Signs made this type of signage and is in the industry news area of this site.
I have attached some of the photos for reference.

[Robert Lambie]

@david-mcdonald

I meant to ask you, David.
I imagine these are pretty time consuming to make? well, at least these ones I am showing, which are made by Harrison Signs.
By that I mean, they look like they are routered from the rear to cut the letter and to create the channel that will embed the LEDs. or, routered from the rear, then the flat cut letter to seal the back, with LEDs face-mounted.
The face of the letter also appears to have a slight bevel? I do not know if this just looks this way and it’s actually flame polished?
You then have to wrap the sides of the letters with the vinyl, which again can be time-consuming to get it just right as I imagine if it’s not done correctly, it will show up cuts, overlaps and more in the vinyl, once it is illuminated.

I am not sure if you have made it exactly like this, but then mounting it to the acrylic case and wiring just adds more time.
Do not get me wrong, I think the sign looks amazing!! just that it got me thinking, it is a lot of work to create what is in fact, a fake neon looking Sign.

I guess at the end of the day, as long as you are being paid properly for the job, it doesn’t matter. I just thought I would be nosey and ask? 🤣🤣