DIY neon sign using laser cutting

I had a dream of creating a back drop for craft markets with a big WOW factor - so I decided to build a collapsable display wall and neon sign for my logo! Here i'll talk a little about the neon sign.

I started with the design. This design consists of two layers - a top layer that has channels to hold the LED strip I purchases on amazon, and a lower layer to stabilize and route the wires on the back of the sign. In illustrator, I blew up my logo to the desired size (23 inches tall) and I offset the paths to create a channel that was the width of the LED strip. To make the back layer, I copied the first layer, turned the channels into score lines rather than cut lines, and added holes for the wires to exit toward the back of the sign.

I laser cut all my parts from 1/4 birch plywood. in order to get the size I wanted, I had to split my design into 3 sections. After cutting, I assembled everything and glued together with wood glue. I used wood filler to hide the cracks created by splitting the design. Finally, I primed and painted the sign to a light peach finish.

The last step was to cut the neon strip to size and solder the pieces together on the back side of the sign. I hung it up on the wall and voila! I was so happy with the result.