Nerd Alert: Proceed with caution.
So way back in July of 2008, I did a DIY Friday post about light tables… almost a year later and I’ve finally gotten around to building my own. While a number of the resources in the July post were useful for inspiration, ultimately I scrapped all advice, took a trip to the hardware store and just figured out my own solution.
The following shows the process with minimal didactics…
$80 on materials at Home Depot not including cost of the door, sawhorses and tools. Got the acrylic sheet at Regal Plastics (they’re awesome).
This dremel saw attachment was key.
This dremel saw attachment was key.
I pulled out most of the cardboard but left it around the edges to hold up the acrylic sheet… it’ll probably require reinforcement eventually.
And then another $20 on a translucent cutting mat. Light table, pimped.
Like
very nice.
Any issue with the door bending now?
Nerd-Alert? More like Awesome-Alert!
Did you finish that table top?
Holy cow, is that seriously your room and not a magazine ad? How do you stay so THX-1138-level clean and white?
whoa: thx-1138! nice old school george lucas reference, chris. when i said “nerd alert,” i didn’t think it applied to the comments, too! but seriously, while i’ll admit to tidying up my studio a bit before i took the pics, i do try to run a pretty tight ship.
as for the other questions, no door bending and no finish.
ooh… I’m getting an Ikea table top. I wonder if that would work instead of the door. Lights from Home Depot?
I built a glasstop table, 28″x 48″, using 1×6″ lumber for both the light box and legs; cut to taper for the legs. The light strips are fastened across bottom of a 6″ deep box, plywood bottom, and the whole thing is covered with a full sheet of 3/8 inch glass that I ground on one side with carborundum. It rests on spacer strips just inside box to hold the glass flush to the top and protect the edges. It was pretty cheap and there is room for storage shelves underneath. It’s works pretty well. I cover areas I need for other purposes with self healing mats or davyboard.