SOC's Ninja Deluxe

[bob p]

I recently saw SC post some pics of his Ninja Deluxe in another thread. I really liked it, so rather than hijacking the other thread, I thought I'd start this one to ask Steve some questions.

Steve, I'd really like to know more about how you did the control panel and it's lighting. would you care to share the details?

[Randall]

I think I know how it is lit. It is a plexi-glass panel that is lit with lamps at the edge(s), like an old Ampeg B15. There were two 47 lamps inside the chassis right at the bottom edge of a piece of plexi that mounted on the external tube cage. It illuminated the etched Ampeg logo. Very cool.

[bob p]

I'm sure that it uses edge lighting. What I'd really like to extract from Steve is how he did the design work, what sort of materials were used, how the plexi was machined, etc. I think it's clear plexi with a metallic finish on once side, perhaps engraved from the rear? But I've never seen one of these in real life, so I'm only guessing.

[imaradiostar]

If I recall correctly it's cast acrylic that's been edge lighted. Neat effect.

jamie

[Steve Conner]

You know what goes with ninjas... Lasers! And sharks, but those aren't relevant right now.

The faceplate was laser engraved on ordinary clear acrylic. The laser has a low power setting for engraving and a high power setting that cuts clean through the acrylic leaving a fire-polished edge, so it also cut the faceplate to size and made the holes for the controls.

Then I mounted it on top of a black painted aluminium panel and edge-lit it with orange-red LEDs.


I mirrored the design so the engraved side would be the back when it was assembled. I think this makes it brighter, and stops dirt getting into the engraving.

[bob p]

Thanks for your explanation Steve. I thought that the acrylic faceplate was laminated instead of clear, and I thought that the backing color was silver/chrome instead of black. (At least it looks silver under the edge lighting).

I was thinking that you had gotten hold of some kind of special acrylic that had a mirrored backing layer, and that you had placed the mirrored backing layer on the back side, and cut through the silver backing layer from behind, part way into the clear layer. My biggest question was going to be where in the heck do you find that clear acrylic with the laminated silver layer on the back side.

Now that you've explained that you just engraved a clear acrylic plate from the back side, and just laid it on top of a black backing plate, that seems a lot simpler. Now I feel kind of dumb for assuming that the whole process was more complicated than it needed to be.

I *REALLY* like your results. Thanks for explaining it for me.

[Steve Conner]

I've only ever tried black backing, but I'd like to try it on a nickel-plated chassis one day. That would provide a nice shiny backing. Could be awesome, could be awful.

[bob p]

how many LED did you end up using? 6? 2 on each end and 2 on the bottom?

[Steve Conner]

Yup. There's also one inside the meter.