Hidden glowing lines ideas?

[rollerboi]

Basically, I'd like to have something that looks like flat metal (cast up in fiberglass, most likely), but that can 'glow' in electroluminescent lines from a battery source when I want it to.

Think of a jedi holocron that activates, or a hellraiser puzzle cube that glows. Only, when it's not glowing, I'd like to have no trace on the external parts (so it looks like a flat cube). Is this even possible?

 

[Talisen]

Probably a thin lexan or similar clear sheet with a thin metallic layer over top of your light pattern..

Similar to how the Master Replicas Sting sword was done.

 

[Raffles]

Make the part in clear material and mask the inside heavily with foil or several coats of primer. A thin outer coat will give the effect of a solid object but an internal light source will expose the pattern.

 

[g05ty]

What about... the resin you get in fibreglass kits mix ink with it whilst its still liquid then you can paint your pattern or use metal plaes over the design it will look quite solid untill its lit up when it should glow.

 

[CustomCreations]

A good coat of silver paint put straight onto the rear face will mask any light when the fibreglass is back lit. You can stencil off the pattern to make it let light through.
You can lightly waft a coating of spray silver over the top face to make it look metal, but it needs to be thin!

 

[Rhett J Martin]

Alclad has a great silver designed just for Lexan, so you could combine that with the other excellent recomendations here.

lots of cool things can be done this way!
Waht are you planning?

 

[Risu]

You could try to set EL wire into resin, then paint over it. I've never worked with EL wire so I have no idea if that works, but I think it would look cool if it does.

 

[Replicant]

The thin silver spraypaint suggestion should work.

The Master Replicas Glowing Sting sword uses this trick...it really looks like silver metal untill the EL sheet behind lights up, then it glows blue through the silver paint.

 

[Grey]

Thinkgeek has these clocks which function similarly to what your asking. You can just barely see the outline of some of the shapes in the Beechwood version, but in the darker Walnut you can't tell at all.

 

[Jack T Chance]

Thinkgeek has these clocks which function similarly to what your asking. You can just barely see the outline of some of the shapes in the Beechwood version, but in the darker Walnut you can't tell at all.

I just saw those in the new ThinkGeek print catalog that hit my mailbox a few days ago, and they are AWESOME!

But they're listed in the catalog as weather displays, not clocks. I think they link to a weather service like WeatherBug or something.

 

[rollerboi]

Mm, those clocks look like they hit the nail on the head. How are those done??

(edit: oh, if they're cut, that won't work for me.)

 

[Luke]

This is an instructable I faved a while back. Might be kinda the look your looking for.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Awesome-led-cube/

 

[Grey]

This is an instructable I faved a while back. Might be kinda the look your looking for.

Well that's just a box with slits cut in it for the light to come through, he says in his initial post that it needs to look like an ordinary solid object when turned off.


No idea on how the clock/weather alert was built. It's called the Woodstation Weather Clock. More pictures online show that it can display a number of graphics for the weather options in various colors.

 

[TridCloudwalker]

Mm, those clocks look like they hit the nail on the head. How are those done??

(edit: oh, if they're cut, that won't work for me.)

I believe it's just a thin vinyl laminate with a wood pattern printed on it that bright LEDs are able to shine through.

My brother is actually doing this kind of work. He's routing channels into black sheet acrylic and installing EL wire into it and making durable "neon" signs. For your purposes, he could route out the path of the wire on clear acrylic, and then on the smooth side attach a thin chrome or aluminum mykar based sign vinyl. Power up the wire, and voila, your "solid metal" surface glows from within.

 

[Risu]

I believe it's just a thin vinyl laminate with a wood pattern printed on it that bright LEDs are able to shine through.

My brother is actually doing this kind of work. He's routing channels into black sheet acrylic and installing EL wire into it and making durable "neon" signs. For your purposes, he could route out the path of the wire on clear acrylic, and then on the smooth side attach a thin chrome or aluminum mykar based sign vinyl. Power up the wire, and voila, your "solid metal" surface glows from within.

This is why I love this place. Anything is possible.