Item Tag: 12 + Years

Cuttable A5 EL Panel This is the latest breakthrough in helping people create their own glowing designs out of super-thin EL Panels, which are much thinner than a credit card at just 1/3mm thick and glow beautifully. This cuttable A5 panel is available in these colours: White, Red, Light Blue, Deep Pink and Green To use this Panel, the first thing you must really think through is your design If you have a pretty good idea of what you want to make then you should decide whether you have to use this cut-able panel, or whether you can use one of our standard EL panels If you simply have to have your EL shapes cut out then this cut-able panel is the thing for you An A5 4 cuttable panel in green The shapes you cut will still need a driver/inverter to power them so you will need to decide on the best driver for you: In the drop-down menu above there is a choice of either a mains powered drivers and/or portable drivers.The range of battery options for the portable drivers are:8 x AAOr Rechargeable Li-ion batteries (1800mAh or 3000mAh including an intelligent charger. These intelligent chargers can also power the unit through the mains). *This rechargeable battery option is only available in UK due to airmail postal restrictions.* Both of the battery options above are capable of powering 400squ cm of EL Tape Maybe the shapes you want to cut are tiny and you could use a smaller driver in which case just choose NO DRIVER and then find one in our ebay store A 4-way splitter is also provided – Here is a little guide to cutting EL Panels taken from the tips section of our website: This LOVE image was cut-out by a 9-year old in about 20 minutes Under my direction I tried to trick her into making every classic mistake I know of when cutting EL Panels (that might be a terrible thing to do – but I was doing it for this guide… to help YOU 😉 These are the steps we took: 1) Plan out the design on an A5 piece of paper Try to use as much of the panel as possible and where possible, force the shapes to share cut-lines, so they are pressed right up next to each other and one cut is shared by two or more shapes Do I need to point out that each of the 4 shapes must obviously end in a connector? There were two mistakes my 9 year old failed to make at this point: a) Having seen lots of EL Panels she understood the thin (4mm) electrode that runs round the edge of the panel will not light up, and took this into account when planning her design b) Also by fluke, or maybe she new, that you need to try and get as much of this electrode into your design as possible to make the el panel glow at its brightest. e.g with the letter V there is only a small section of outer electrode near the connector and then the panel flares out wide – I was convinced this would mean there is not enough outer electrode on this piece to make it all glow strongly. If the shape had been any bigger or wider (or the amount of electrode smaller) it would not glow so well at the far ends 2) Map out the design on the front of the panel Like a lamb to the slaughter, I casually suggested she then copy out her design onto THE BACK of the EL Panel ready to be cut. If you can’t immediately see what’ll go wrong with this then I can’t blame you, as I’ve made exactly the same mistake before – ONLY ONCE mind (well, twice but I don’t like to admit that) So if the image is drawn on the back, when it is cut out YOU WILL GET A REVERSE IMAGE of what you are trying to achieve – OUCH! (fear not for the emotional sensitivity of our young maker here, since all the letters of the word LOVE will still come out right, even when they’ve been reversed! Love simply cannot be done wrong 😉 3) Cutting out the shapes I am usually a big fan of the scalpel for arty projects but for EL Panel it has to be sharp scissors. Also I think its best for the panels to be a bit warm when they’re cut, you get cleaner cuts. You certainly get worse cuts if the panel is freezing cold. The EL material is sensitive to heat so don’t go mad, just take the chill off it, warm it on your tummy or at most in a cloth by a radiator. At this point, she made possibly the most ruinous mistake… While cutting the sharp point of the V, the two scissor cuts didn’t quite meet, and the shape was hanging by a thread. With a glorious inevitability she tugged the shape free, and sure enough it caused the EL Panel nightmare DELAMINATION Okay, I admit I’ve peeled it apart a bit more for effect – but can you see the delamimation goes further than the small corner thats peeled up When you delaminate, the layers of the EL Panel peel apart slightly, and this stops that part of the panel from glowing when its plugged it In this case it was almost 1cm x 5mm triangle – it can be repaired somewhat with superglue but its never as good again and its best avoided. Happily, delaming doesn’t happen too easily. I find using a scalpel can quite often delam around the cutting edge a millimetre or two. If you cut at a 60º angle, then the piece of EL Panel inside the angle will be fine and the outside bit delams really heavily. These are the only 2 ways of accidentally delaming I can think of. 4) Seal the Panel If you try to delam or peel apart the EL Panel at the cut edge – you’ll find its near impossible. But don’t think that means it shouldn’t be sealed. Over time, moisture can get in and this can cause it to peel apart. Brushing on superglue all round the cut edge is best, or nail varnish will also work I hope that helps and good luck with your project – – – – – – – – – – – A wide selection of other EL Tape, EL Wire, Sequencers, Drivers and helpful EL accessories are available from our ebay store