Over the past ten years, neon advertising has practically ceased to be used for its intended purpose. Now this is a piece of goods that wealthy people do not put on public display, but buy their own home. The author of Instructables under the nickname ucn saw an ad for the sale of such a beautiful thing:
And then he decided to give his wife something similar. But homemade, for the price, of course ...
About at home working with glass tubes, noble gases, and most importantly - mercury, there was no question. Alternatives? The electroluminescent cord is thin and dull, a flexible tube with LEDs is already better, but it is matte. Definitely need to come up with something of their own. He bought a roll of tube for aquariums:
And with all his legs he ran to order laser cutting. First, a sample to check if it works. They picked up a piece of black plexiglass from the waste and cut out the letter T. Note: all lines end in round bulges with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the tube. This is for convenience:
He missed the pipe through these thickenings:
And then clamped in the slots. It turned out like this:
Now let's look at the same thing from the reverse side:
The master tries to illuminate the sample from the back with some lamp:
Well, the technology he invented proved to be the best. You can start manufacturing homemade. The master again ran to order laser cutting, but this time asked to do everything on the most even, cleanest, most glossy black plexiglass. Which he was cut along with a protective film on the front side:
On the back, she, of course, is not needed:
Having removed the film only where necessary, the master placed the tube in the slots:
This time there is a lot of it, you will press it there - it will jump out in another place. Therefore, ucn glued everything with a glue gun:
Again I tried to highlight:
It remains to make the body of the aluminum corner:
And to equip the homemade product with an integrated light source - an LED strip on the transverse walls:
The master placed the power supply on the side, and also provided for something similar to Ambilight (the tubes shine back and forth in a real neon sign):
Everything shines perfectly:
