Twin Screen Edge Lit Sign

After I brought a string of 150 led Christmas lights for £15. I noticed how the patterns alternated every other LED. This lead my mind thinking that a twin screen edge lit sign would be possible that had alternating words/ pictures etc. The idea being to place one sheet of perspex in front of another. So here goes!

First of all I print out on computer what I would like engraved on the perspex. In this case it was a friend of mine Chloe. I wanted her first name on the front screen and her second name to appear on the back screen.  

Next I drew in permanent marker onto the perspex with the sheets underneath. Then flipped the sheets over and did this again so I had better reference of the words whilst engraving from the back. I don't know why, but edge lit stuff always works better engraved from the back rather than the front, once illuminated.

The engraving begins....

How I had to find a way to sandwich the layers of perspex together whilst still having enough room to fit inn all those LEDs. So I layered some bits of MDF like so. 

Next step was to mount as many of those LEDs as I could in the space that I had. I figured I could just about fit 96 of my 150 LEDs into the space available. So I drilled the holes into another piece of MDF.

After the insertation of the 96 LEDs, it resembled something out of the large hadrol colider! But worked very well, lining up nicely with the screen 'sandwich'.

I then put the whole lot together including a base plate and gave it sides from thin strips of fibre board.

The results: As you can see, the alternating LED patterns worked well in displaying the front words then back words, or both together. They can also dim slowly between the 2, flash etc.