Custom curved acrylic nativity tea light, painted and stand alone with reflection effects and slight 3D effects.
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Step 1
Setting 1
Process Method
Laser Cut
Process Material
Transparent Acrylic
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
100
Speed(mm/s)
2
Lines per cm
100
Pass
1
Bitmap mode
Grayscale
Started with a 12" x 12" sheet of Cast Acrylic that I purchased from amazon, this sheet has a paper coating on both sides to protect the high gloss finish, I started in XCS software with an SVG file of the nativity scene, set the size to approx. 6" x 6" square and cut it out using a D1 Pro 10W with the cut settings of 100% power, 2mm/s speed and 1 pass. This cut the shape perfectly.
Step 2
I then went on to make the base from the XCS shape tools, I set the base up to have 2 holes to have the actual nativity scene to sit within these holes to stand on it's own. I put the holes on an angle to match the curvature of the nativity scene once I heated it up and curved it. I used calipers to get the exact measurement of the 2 stand offs. Once I knew the distance I made a rectangle the exact length and set 2 matching small square holes that corresponded to the angle. Once I lined everything up I deleted the rectangle and knew the 2 holes were lined up. As you can see in pic3 and pic4.
Step 3
4 More images
When the nativity scene was cut out I removed the paper lining from both sides, as seen in pic6 and pic7, Once this was done I took a large round glass jar for a curving jig, I placed the nativity scene on the top and started to use a heat gun (pic15) to heat the acrylic slowly as it started to bend downwards to follow the glass jar. As you can see from pic10 and pic 11 the acrylic once cooled again stayed in the curvature of the glass jar.
Step 4
4 More images
once I cut out the base using the same settings as the nativity scene itself 100% power, 2mm/s speed and 1 pass I easily fit the 2 pieces together with the holes I cut out of the base that matched the stand offs on the nativity scene, when I knew that fit properly I removed the nativity scene and proceeded to paint the entire piece white on both sides. I used Painter's touch Flat white as a bonus it bonds to plastic/acrylic perfectly, as you see in picture I almost forgot to get a snap shot of it all completely white, but you can see I continued on and painted the entire scene.
Step 5
2 More images
Once it was all painted and dried I connected the two pieces together again and add a tea light, as you can see what it looks like in the day light with all the colours and what it looks light with the tea light burning in the dark with it's various cut outs give the lighting effect and looks totally different.
Started with a 12" x 12" sheet of Cast Acrylic that I purchased from amazon, this sheet has a paper coating on both sides to protect the high gloss finish, I started in XCS software with an SVG file of the nativity scene, set the size to approx. 6" x 6" square and cut it out using a D1 Pro 10W with the cut settings of 100% power, 2mm/s speed and 1 pass. This cut the shape perfectly.
I then went on to make the base from the XCS shape tools, I set the base up to have 2 holes to have the actual nativity scene to sit within these holes to stand on it's own. I put the holes on an angle to match the curvature of the nativity scene once I heated it up and curved it. I used calipers to get the exact measurement of the 2 stand offs. Once I knew the distance I made a rectangle the exact length and set 2 matching small square holes that corresponded to the angle. Once I lined everything up I deleted the rectangle and knew the 2 holes were lined up. As you can see in pic3 and pic4.
When the nativity scene was cut out I removed the paper lining from both sides, as seen in pic6 and pic7, Once this was done I took a large round glass jar for a curving jig, I placed the nativity scene on the top and started to use a heat gun (pic15) to heat the acrylic slowly as it started to bend downwards to follow the glass jar. As you can see from pic10 and pic 11 the acrylic once cooled again stayed in the curvature of the glass jar.
once I cut out the base using the same settings as the nativity scene itself 100% power, 2mm/s speed and 1 pass I easily fit the 2 pieces together with the holes I cut out of the base that matched the stand offs on the nativity scene, when I knew that fit properly I removed the nativity scene and proceeded to paint the entire piece white on both sides. I used Painter's touch Flat white as a bonus it bonds to plastic/acrylic perfectly, as you see in picture I almost forgot to get a snap shot of it all completely white, but you can see I continued on and painted the entire scene.
Once it was all painted and dried I connected the two pieces together again and add a tea light, as you can see what it looks like in the day light with all the colours and what it looks light with the tea light burning in the dark with it's various cut outs give the lighting effect and looks totally different.