Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Making an LED tracing light box for creating illustrations and animations













Tools and materials I propose:

I made this lightbox out of pallet wood, plexiglass and LED strips. It is ideal for tracing images. You can also use it to create hand drawn animations.

First of all I cleaned my wood with a wire brush and my random orbit sander. I then flattened two edges of each board with my jointer. I passed the boards 
through the thickness planer and finally I finished squaring up my material on my table saw.

I set up a stop block on my cross cut sled and made the butt joints of the box. I then glued and nailed the box sides. I also used a picture frame clamp. 

Next I glued and nailed the cleats in place. Those cleats would hold the milky plexiglass top. I cut the plexiglass to size on my table saw. 

The bottom was just a laminated MDF piece which I also cut on the table saw.

I glued and nailed the bottom in place.

To solder all the electric parts I first coated everything with solder. It was then easy to join the jumper wires with the LED strip contacts. I connected the pluses with the pluses and the minuses with the minuses. I also added a dimmer and a power supply. I secured the LED strips in place with my hot glue gun.

Using a forstner bit I opened up a hole for the cable. I created a knot with the cable so it can’t get pulled out. I screwed the dimmer and the power supply in place and connected them with the rest of the circuit. I also added some heat shrinking tube to keep the wires nice and tidy. 

At this point my light box was ready. It is really useful for tracing images for illustrations. But the most fun part is that you can use it to create hand drawn animations.

But anyway, I hope you liked it, because that was it, see you soon with a new project video.


Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, that at no cost to you, I get a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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