I have wanted a lightbox for years, I live in a small flat and don't have the space to store a large lightbox. I decided to build a photo/tracing lightbox into my Ikea coffee table. I picked up all of the equipment on ebay and put the whole lot together in a couple of hours. The table is an Ikea 'Lack' and cost about £5, they come in many different colours.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Choosing Correct Acrylic
-Ideally I would have made the top from one single thick sheet of acrylic with a routed out step around it's edge. However to do this I would need a router and a acrylic cutting router head... which I don't have. Instead I ordered two sheets of Acrylic. One 8mm thick transparent sheet and one 3mm thick Opal coloured sheet. I had the clear sheet cut slightly smaller (which the acrylic company did free of charge).
-Lack table top measures 550x550mm
-Clear Acrylic 8mm 480x480mm
-Opal 3mm Acrylic 500x500mm
-I purchased these materials on Ebay from trentplastics.co.uk, they gave me cheap combined postage and next day delivery.
-Lack table top measures 550x550mm
-Clear Acrylic 8mm 480x480mm
-Opal 3mm Acrylic 500x500mm
-I purchased these materials on Ebay from trentplastics.co.uk, they gave me cheap combined postage and next day delivery.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
Could i ask you how much both sheets of plastic combined cost you in the end?
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0099009/photos/61654338@N02/sets/72157632572246406/
Don't know how to post them on here (I'm on a phone).
I didn't take any photos inside before doing it all up which is a shame, but the connector is glued around the hole on the inside and also to the leg support.
I was going to have it flush, but there wasn't room between the Perspex and the bottom, so had to push it through a few mm. It made it stronger and tidier though.
I like the fact that the opal is smaller than the top, that and the screws, makes a feature of it. A flat complete top would look too plain in my eyes...
I hope it serves you well.
I think painting it white inside is a must. I used 2 tester pots from b and q as i didn't want to buy a brush or pot of paint. Each tester pot (50ml) did one coat. I gave it two coats.
The hardest part was the drilling of the Perspex. I think I would go slightly bigger on the Perspex (maybe add 5/10mm all round to both sheets) as I found the fixings were very close to the edge of the clear Perspex, and so one corner broke off a little (makes no difference as it doesn't move on the plane as its sat in a recess so that fixing is only holding the clear one down).
The only changes I made were...
1. using washers under the fixings (I still used the dome screws like you as I liked the look of them) but I wanted to spread the load a little!
2. I didn't like the hanging cable connector, so instead drilled a hole the size of the connector just off one of the leg supports, so that I could just poke it through a little and then glue the rest of the connector to the leg support so that it was solid.
Got the LEDs and power cable from eBay. £12.
Paint pots from b and q. £2.20.
Perspex from Trent plastics. £29.
Table. Free.
So £45 total. Not bad for a light box that size!
All in all, was a good instructable, Thanks!
Congratulations on the build, would be fantastic to see a picture! I like the sound of your power cable modification. I would especially like to see what that looks like. I had considered at one point making the Perspex the same size as the whole top of the table and just glueing it down on top, I ended up deciding against this as I wasn't sure if the Perspex would be cut perfectly square. Id like to see someone do this with a white table as the light box would almost be entirely hidden. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!
I'm glad you like the project, I can certainly understand your students loving light boxes. They are surprisingly useful. You are absolutely right about silver being a better reflector, however silver objects reflect SO well that the reflection almost exactly mirrors the light source. Ideally the light in a light box is diffused and spreads evenly across the drawing surface, you don't really want to be moving the paper around the board to find the best light spots. Although the acrylic sheet helps the diffusion you would be surprised how much of a difference the white interior makes.
I considered using fluorescent lighting however it gets extremely hot and there simply isn't enough space inside to allow proper air circulation. The table is only 5cm deep and I think the plastic would melt pretty quickly. Rope lighting should do the trick though! Most rope lighting is LED based so you don't have to worry about the heat issue. Have a look on eBay for different options because LED lighting is INCREDIBLY cheap. I bought 5 meters for less than £10. Hope that helps!
Best of luck with the build! Be sure to post pictures when you're done.
Cheers
Thanks
Cheers
I've always wanted a lightbox!
Thanks for posting this!! :D
I would like to add a few tips of a slightly different approach.
As an old school graphic designer I used light boxes most of my life, not just for viewing transparencies (slides or films) but to also use them as montage tables.
The difference from the ones I build (of this size) is that I used a circular fluorescent light (remove all its components from the metal casing and remount them inside your table/box), then I glued some wooden stripes on the inside perimeter to create a step deep enough to hold flash a white acrylic sheet and a glass top over it. Open a few big enough holes at opposite box sites for air ventilation and to cool it down. No screws are necessary as the weight of the two tops will keep it in place nicely and flash, also it’s easy to remove and change the fluorescent if needed. Some times if the diffusion is not enough you may add a sheet/s of tracing paper between the acrylic and the glass or use a white glass. At the site you can mount an on/off small light switch.
It's nice to hear everybody's different approaches. I was thinking about using a fluorescent ring as that's what they have at the photo lab where I work. However it does get very hot and I was a little worried about mounting it in a table which is only 50mm thick. I think if I built one from scratch then that's what I'd do.
Cheers
I really dont know a lot about lightboxes, but why do you need 2 acrylic sheets?
doesnt it work just as good only with the opal one?
Oh and also they only seem to make Opal acrylic up to 5mm which is a bit to thin.