Light Box

GG wrote: I am looking to build my own light box. Does anyone know how thick the glass needs to be. The box will be 2 feet by 3 feet.

Michael

What are you going to do on this 2 x 3 ft lightbox? That will determine how thick. and how it's built can determine that too.

Mine is 42 x 52 and is 3/16 tempered, but the edges are dropped so the glass is level with the wood, and is mortised into a piece of 3/4" plywood, I do what I want on it. The size was determined by what the glass shop had as a scratched/misorder piece. That is one direction, see what you can get cheap in 3/16 tempered, 1/2 in in annealed glass is overkill, 1/4' at most unless you want to use it as a step stool.

I just built myself a light box. I used a 2ft square drop-in flourescent light (for suspended ceilings) from Home Depot. I cut a pc of 1/4" plate to fit in the "lid", and siliconed it in place. I found a 5000K tube for color correctness and had the whole thing done in about 30 minutes.

I disagree with those who are using tempered glass as the surface of a light box. All you have to is nick that glass with a cutter and you have trillions of little shards to deal with.

Damn, now ya tell me, wish I would have known that 20 years ago when I built it....and I cut on mine all the time.

But that's OK, Dennis, you can disagree, I just won't listen.

You can just kiss my ENTIRE ass. LOL

I used an old sliding glass door for my 4'x8' table top, with fluorescents under but usually cut on a slab of sheetrock which lives on top of the slider when i don't need the light. m

One thing I did that I enjoy was to put a single halogen lamp in one of my light tables alongside the fluorescent fixtures. The halogen light I only turn on briefly when I want to trace or exacto something through some spray mask or resist. And for a lot of work, I like not having all the overflow light from the fluorescent bulbs in my face. The halogen is focused and contained. I use it so often now that I plan to put a better switch on it. Can't leave it on for a long time though. it gets too hot.

I have an 8' x 4' table with 4 twin light 48" flourescent fixtures underneath. I use 2 pieces of 1/4" clear plate, each approx 4' x 4'. Same glass for almost 10 years. I have 2 pieces of homosote that I can use over the glass to convert it to an 8' table or 4' half table half light box.