Light Box

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.

Reply to
GG
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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.

**************** Good question, GG. I am wanting to make one myself, about the same size as yours. I'm thinking that 1/2" is pretty close to good enough. But that is a guess.

Michael

Reply to
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.

Reply to
javahut

3/16" or 1/4" is plenty. 1/2" is like overkill and it'll weigh a ton. I once had a light box that was 4' x 8' and had 1/4" tempered and it was fine.
Reply to
Chemo the Clown

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.

Reply to
Moonraker

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.

Reply to
javahut

You can just kiss my ENTIRE ass. LOL

Reply to
Moonraker

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

Reply to
michele

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.

Reply to
db

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.

Reply to
glassman

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