Sublimation onto Clear Acrylic

[GlassBlaster]

Hi, this is my first post so please be gentle with me & I don't have any equipment at this stage; still researching. [FONT=&quot]As you are probably aware, if you etch/sand blast a pattern into the back of a sheet of clear acrylic and in a dimly lit room shine a light through an edge, that pattern shows up and becomes very clear and easy to see. Will a sublimated image onto the back of a sheet of acrylic have the same appearance? I hope that makes sense. Cheers.[/FONT]

[webtrekker]

Hi, and welcome.

With regard to your question I would imagine the design would have to break the surface of the acrylic to have any effect on the light passing through it. To me, engraving would be the best method. I have engraved designs onto clear acrylic before using my contour cutter with an engraving tool replacing the blade but never tried edge-lighting any of my workpieces.

[GlassBlaster]

Thank you webtrekker, that's what I thought. I have grit blasted some text onto acrylic that I can barely feel running my finger across it and it lights up well however it has broken the surface as you say whereas sublimation is only on the surface; oh well!

[pisquee]

You can sublimate onto cast acrylic, it works well.

[GlassBlaster]

I carried out my first sublimation today on a piece of scrap 10mm clear cast acrylic using a second hand Heat Press that I purchased this morning; success however I need to carry out more testing; .
I gave it four goes;
180C for 180 seconds
185C for 180
185C for 200
185C for 220
Pressure? I don't know how to measure it but I'm guessing medium.
On all tests some of the paper stuck, on all tests not all of the image appeared and on the three 185C tests the heat tape & paper left an impression so I'm guessing 185C at that pressure is to hot. My next tests tomorrow will start at 180C but for longer times. I am certainly open to any suggestions/advice. Cheers.

[webtrekker]

[User Deleted]

[GlassBlaster]

Thanks for the link. I have read all of it and found it very interesting especially the temps & times, hopefully I'll have time to try more testing today. I have very little control over the sublimated images & paper because I don't have my printer set up yet so I pay to have the A4 pages printed for me and there's not much depth of colour. I didn't see any mention about Heat Press pressure however I read something recently that said "light pressure" so that's something else to play around with; so many variables!

[pisquee]

When we did acrylic sheets, we had more than one heat press on the job - one for the printing, and then another at a warm temperature to cool the sheets down after printing under pressure to keep them flat. We may even have a third one which was cold - can't remember

[Mrteajunkie]

Sorry to hijack this thread but is there a decent supplier for cast acrylic?

[pisquee]

We used https://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk/
know who used Bay Plastics too