Edge-Lit Display

I had some clear acrylic laser-cut into 10 number plates, stuck some LEDs to them, taped with copper tape, and voilà.

The design was drawn in Inkscape and cut by Ponoko as usual. The font I used is Linux Libertine.

I found 2×3×4 mm LEDs from eBay that could be inserted into 2 mm acrylic elegantly. Unfortunately the tolerances were a bit off, so I had to persuade the plates with some filing. I had made also top and bottom pieces to go to the 'teeth' on the top and bottom, but the acrylic was 0.1+a bit mm thicker than specified, so the error accumulated to more than 1 mm. I had tried to anticipate this, so I had a 1 mm version of the bracket... not enough.

Some copper tape was added to each plate to reduce light bleeding to adjacent plates. I also used the tape to bind the plates together.

The whole thing is about 4×5½×2 cm, which is about 2 match boxes.

I had two of these made, so if you want to buy the other one, message me!