Light Box

[Bob Bullard]

I' m getting ready to build a lite box and thought I would ask and see if anyone had any suggestions
on what I should do or not do so I only have to make it once.
I have the plexiglass 12x18 and a lite fixture (fluorescent 15 watt) . Any suggestions will be greatly
appericated
Bob

 

[RoycroftRon]

My 2 cents:

If the plexi is not already white or similar translucent, you might want to sandblast it. At 12x18 you should be fine in terms of rigidity with plexi unless it is too thin. I find a one sided stand support (so it is at an angle) useful for drawing.

 

[John B.]

Hi Bob.
I used to make them for all the desks at my design business.
The top was 14" thick acrilic sheet like that used in the sign shops.
I made the bottom from aluminum baking pans.
If not polished aluminum paint the inside white or lay a sheet of heavy aluminum foil under the light fixture.
Put rubber bumper feet on the bottom of the pan to give a little air space from the desk top.
Drill holes in the bottom for air circulation and a few in the upper sides to let any heat out.
Drill the side for a rubber grommet to run the power cord through.
I still have one with a modified photo enlarger attached to it for use in making scribed images for transfer.
Just the basic light table you are talking about works great though.
And is a fun project and costs about 25% of a store bought one.
Best wishes, John B.

 

[Peter E]

Jim Cooper aka SharpByCoop described fabrication of a Light box on BladeForums. You might try doing a search over there to find that thread. There was a lot of good information.

Peter

 

[SamW]

I,m confused here (a normal state of mind for me). Are we talking about a light box or a light table?

S

 

[RoycroftRon]

I assumed light table. Although a lot of the advice could be interpreted both ways. I would think the light source would be different for light box for photography but I am from the slide era and would use tungsten film (and bulbs) for the photography.

 

[Bob Bullard]

Really I guess you could call it a light table

 

[jmcutting]

A few years back I picked up a xray viewing box to use as a light box. It has been great... Here is a similar one on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Star-X-Ray-Light-Box-Xray-Film-Viewing-Lightbox-No-Res_W0QQitemZ270155759972QQihZ017QQcategoryZ11820QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

-justin

 

[FL-Flinter]

If you don't need something large, simply pick up an old flat bed computer scanner at yard sale or off someone's trash pile. Strip the guts out and if the lamp it came with still works, you can re-mount it in the center lenthwise on the bottom of the unit, if not replace it with a flourescent tube fixture. (Caution - some of the OEM scanner lamps run on low voltage supplied via internal regulation circuitry and some get extremely hot so please use caution and common sense) The built-in flip top cover keeps the drawing surface from getting buggered up when not in-use too. Yes, I'm a junk picker and yes I have one of these myself, about 15 minutes of labor and the whole job was done ready to work for a total cost of FREE.

 

[Bob Bullard]

thanks everyone for the ideas and help.
Bob