Mass effect dog tags... but theyr holograms?!

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golem95

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not to spam this forums but ive been away from the 405th for awhile and wanted to share all my projects :p

just to let you all know its not a real hologram, im just trying to emulate a hologram like look and feel to my prop! Im actually really excited about this one because for once its almost completely my own original design (minus the N7 logo of course :p).

So far im at this stage
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the start of my inspiration for this actually came from this photo
acrylic_Led_sign.jpg


I thought wow that looks really nice, almost like the light is just floating there. The only thing that ruined the illusion of projected light was the edges of the acrylic, so i thought if i could hide the edges of the acrylic it would give the illusion of a hologram like image

so i drew this!
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very crude i know but i drew it in about 2 minutes just jotting down all my ideas for making this thing as compact as possible yet still light up nicely, after a few tweaks of the design in my mind i drew up a couple 2d cad files and cut out acrylic with the etching on as well as a wooden housing out of laser ply. Photo of the housing with the acrylic in:
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to make it as compact as possible those holes you see are for 2mm bolts.... i didnt even know until i researched into it that 2mm bolts existed :? so i then ordered a couple nylon bolts for this project and put it all together! i also stained the plywood to give it a very nice oak look like so:
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the etching on the acrylic isnt finalized, im trying to get the etching to have a layered look to it to give the illusion of depth. but until then i snapped a couple shots of the testing of the lighting and here are the pics!

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that colour is pretty sexy isnt it

then i thought that the wooden casing while nice and ornate doesnt match up with the futuristic look so i made a black acrylic housing as well!
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oh and for you fans of the games ;)
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now i know most people on this forum are massive halo fans so just for you guys i think ill draw one up with the marathon symbol on it, but please feel free to suggest what i could do with a halo theme :)

also im interested in finding a company that can do custom cut aluminium, that way i could see if itd be feasible to get my housing's made out of aluminium :D so if anyone knows of a company like that please let me know!

for more pics check out my facebook page, link is in my sig :)
 
wow, this idea is very cool, mind if i give this a try myself? :p

also: is the acrylic glas made of 2 pieces where you edged the logo in the middle (1 normal, 1 reversed) and then hold toghether? or is it 1 piece of acrylic glass with the edging on 1 side (so you can feel it)
 
wow, this idea is very cool, mind if i give this a try myself? :p

not at all, give it a go!
ive finally had a good idea for once :p im trying to cut down the full housing depth to about 6mm making it much less bulky, but if people ask you about your one please direct people to this thread! im trying to get more likes for my fb page haha
 
not at all, give it a go!
ive finally had a good idea for once :p im trying to cut down the full housing depth to about 6mm making it much less bulky, but if people ask you about your one please direct people to this thread! im trying to get more likes for my fb page haha

will do :)

also: is the acrylic glas made of 2 pieces where you edged the logo in the middle (1 normal, 1 reversed) and then hold toghether? or is it 1 piece of acrylic glass with the edging on 1 side (so you can feel it)
 
the acrylic is two 1.5 mm pieces one etched with it normally and the other reversed, then clamped together by the housing exactly :) although be careful with 1.5mm acrylic because im having trouble etching it without it being all streaky :(
 
the acrylic is two 1.5 mm pieces one etched with it normally and the other reversed, then clamped together by the housing exactly :) although be careful with 1.5mm acrylic because im having trouble etching it without it being all streaky :(

i think i will try it with 2 pieces of plastic that i can cnc etch, i have some experience with that, the only thing that is really difficult is that the plastic has to be leveled, but i think i can manage that, the pieces aren't that big
 
i think i will try it with 2 pieces of plastic that i can cnc etch, i have some experience with that, the only thing that is really difficult is that the plastic has to be leveled, but i think i can manage that, the pieces aren't that big

yeah that should work well too! let me know how it goes :) i kinda just made the sizes for it randomly and it worked out quite well :p
 
thank you :) im actually currently gauging interest in these to see if its worth doing a small run on them so i might have an interest thread up in the classifieds later
 
Awesome stuff, would like to try this out for myself. Any tips?

go ahead! umm well im not sure what i could say for tips, id say try getting as thin acrylic as you can because you dont want the housing super thick, im trying to source some 1.5 mm black acrylic so that i can shave the housing thickness down to 6mm thick
other than that just play around and be precise on your CAD programs so that the el wire fits perfectly between the tag part and the housing ;)
 
These are really cool. Would love to make one. I'm confused about the etching though. Is it by hand or by machine or what? How was this done?
 
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