From the Loftsmith Workshop

Edge-lit acrylic sign base sized to your sheet and LED strip

Turns a flat sheet of acrylic into a glowing sign that stands on its own. The sheet slips into a long slot along the top, and the base has room inside for an LED strip and its small USB controller. Set your sheet thickness and LED strip width to match your parts.

3 parts · 85 g · 174 × 70 × 29 mm

by Loftsmith Workshop

Low dark rectangular base with a long narrow slot running along the top
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No adjustable sizes

Ask for the sizes you want to tweak, e.g. “make the width adjustable”.

Change it in the Studio

Parts

  • base · PLA, black or dark grey · Top face down on a smooth plate (printed upside down)

    About 57 g and 81 min at 2 walls / 15%. A dark colour stops light glowing through the walls. Printed top-down, the slot, channel, bay and USB notch all open upward and every 45-degree chamfer prints, so it needs no supports.

  • cover · PLA, black or dark grey · Outside face down, fence and posts up

    About 24 g and 37 min. The low U-shaped fence locates the controller, and the two posts hold the LED tray up. The countersinks face the bed.

  • LED tray · PLA, white · Flat

    About 4 g and 9 min. The LED strip sticks on top. White reflects stray light up into the panel edge.

Print settings

Layer height
0.2 mm
Walls
2 (shown figures); 3 for a heavier base
Infill
15%
Supports
None
Notes
At the defaults all three parts come to about 89 g and 2 h 12 min at 2 walls / 15% (about 115 g and 2 h 50 min at 3 walls / 15%). Print the base top face down on a smooth plate. Use black or dark grey for the base and cover and white for the tray. The default base is 174 x 70 mm, so it fits a 180 mm

Hardware

  • 4 × M3 heat-set insert · 4.1 mm pocket, up to 5.7 mm long, pressed into the corner bosses of the base
  • 4 × M3 x 6 countersunk screw · Hold the cover on. The insert pockets are 6 mm deep behind a 2 mm cover, so use 6 mm screws.
  • LED strip (WS2812B or plain 5 V), 5-12 mm wide · Cut to sheet width minus 16 mm (134 mm for the default 150 mm sheet), with the wired end over the tray hole
  • LED controller (ESP32 dev board or USB-C LED controller) · The default bay is 28 x 55 x 10 mm, the size of an ESP32 dev board. The USB-C port must face the back, centred on the board's width.
  • USB-C lead · A plug body up to 12 x 6.5 mm passes the back notch
  • Clear acrylic sheet, engraved · 2-8 mm thick, 60-230 mm wide. Measure the thickness with calipers and enter that value.

Assembly

  1. Turn the base upside down and press the four M3 heat-set inserts into the corner bosses.
  2. Solder or connect the wires to the LED strip. Peel the backing and stick the strip on the white tray, LEDs up, with the wired end over the small hole near one end. Feed the wires down through the hole.
  3. Push the tray up into the channel under the slot, LEDs toward the slot, until both ends stop under the slot ends.
  4. Set the controller inside the fence on the cover, USB-C port toward the back notch, and connect the strip wires. They run over the fence, under the tray.
  5. Lower the cover into the base so its two posts sit under the tray ends, then fit the four M3 x 6 countersunk screws from below.
  6. Stand the base up, slide the acrylic sheet into the slot until it rests on the end lands, and plug the USB-C lead in through the notch at the back.

Good to know

  • The slot ribs are drawn exactly touching the sheet, and the grip relies on printed slots usually coming out about 0.1-0.2 mm tight. If the panel is loose, enter a sheet thickness 0.1 mm smaller; if it is too tight, 0.1 mm larger. The grip has not been tested on a real print.
  • Sheets up to 230 mm wide only (the base is then 254 mm long and needs a 256 mm bed). There is no split base for wider panels such as A4 landscape.
  • The tipping check (it only tips past 15 degrees or more across the whole range) is a static estimate with the printed parts counted at 80% of solid mass. A knock can still tip a tall sign, so keep it back from desk edges.
  • The bay is a plain box envelope. The USB-C notch assumes the port centre sits about 3.6 mm above the board's underside, centred on its width. Check your board, and raise the controller height slider for pin headers or tall parts. Long controllers make the base deeper automatically (70.1 mm for a 60
  • PLA softens around 55 C. A strip run at full white brightness for hours in the closed channel can get warm, so keep brightness moderate or print the tray in PETG.
  • Fits strips 5-12 mm wide. Strips in a silicone sleeve are taller than the 2.2 mm modelled and were not checked.
I printed this Remix

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