hey, i have no idea how to use a hammer...

whats up everyone, im new here and really have no woodworking ablaties as of yet being that i am currently working on the first thing i have ever built other than furniture in a box. that first endevour would happen to be a arcade cabinet and i had a idea for a part of it but really have idea how to go about accomplishing the image i have in my head. i have a tribal tattoo that i would like to cut out of some MDF, put some kind of backing on it and fill the holes (or the black part of the tattoo) with some kind of opaque epoxy (i think thats what i would use) and set some leds in the epoxy. pretty much to create a flashy marquee for the cabinet. if anyone has any idea as to what type of material i would need to fill the holes, please let me know becuase i am completly lost and the people at home depot looked at me like i was making ???? up that cant be done....

You would want either a clear epoxy resin, or casting resin (which is polyester). You can then add some sort of colouring to it to get the opaque colour you want. For example, you could add bricklayer's oxide to make it black or brown. There are other dyes that you can get to colour it. Experiment first before pouring it into your mould.

Another way to do it would be to rout out a recess on the back of the board before you cut your actual pattern and then place a piece of perspex creating a window. You can get opaque perspex or acrylic sheet in different colours.

In Arizona perspex is known as plexiglass.....welcome to the forums IP:2tsup:

Yuo never know, this project just might make make a woodworker of you.

BTW...MDF dust is bad for one's health, wear a dust mask when cutting:U

Welcome IP,
Good to see someone pushing the limits of what we'd call "normal woodworking". It sounds pretty spectacular if you can get it looking in reality how it looks in your imagination.
I've got to confess I haven't got any suggestions for you, but more will come..:)

Good luck with the project.

Bill

G'day IP and welcome along!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

Good luck with the project and keep us posted.

well ive already cut, sanded and took a router to 3 sheets of mdf so a mask wouldnt change much lol. i thought about plastics and glass and i thought epoxy would be a much more fun way to go in terms of expermenting and expanding knowledge. as for this project making a woodworker out of me, i already see that happening. i tought myself how to weld just for the hell of it and im building this thing with abolutely no idea what im doing and its turning out great. theres also quite a bit of electrical work involved and i dove into that with no idea how things work and everything ive wired up has worked so far.Attachment 94164 ill have to take more pictures but ill try to post the few i have