Building a light box/table

[David Rogers]

stick to the fluorescent tubes – they cost next to nothing to run.

Running 50 of them (16w+control gear) would only cost you 17p an hour!

1000w per hour = 1 unit

Dave

[Mike Grant]

You bench top should be at least 6" from your tubes and your tubes should be 200mm apart for even illumination.

[Chris Wool]

I put a 150 w flood light on the floor pointing upwards. may not be technically correct but works well when required.

[Robert Lambie]

The brightness of your LED’s will play a big part. I doubt Maplins led strip will be up to the job. I have used LED strip bought from a UK Sign source at low cost thinking it was exactly the same as what i was currently using from Robert Horne. how wrong was i!!! the lower costing, had more leds per metre and still only had 1/4 of the brightness to the ones sourced from Robert Horne.

for built up letter, light boxes and now projecting signs we use Sloan LED’s via Robert Horne. there are various types available for specific applications and are very bright!
I am still very new to the whole illuminated signage side of things because untill about 2 years ago we just bought everything in already done. so everything is testing this and testing that. one thing im fixed on is not to buy cheap alternatives with LED’s.

one thing you should do is either paint the backing board your lights are fixed to "white" or sit them on correx, foamex even white vinyl. it will really help increase the illumination.

as has been said, maybe dropping the light board down will give a better coverage of light.

do not rule out led’s. the running cost of something like this table will be next to nothing.
illumination will be much whiter and with zero flicker that you get from fluorescent tubes which you may strain your eyes if looking down onto all day long.

alternatively, you could switch those tubes you have in now to LED tubes.

best of luck.

---

Attachments:

[Colin Miller]

I agree with Mike your tubes should be 150mm from the face, but I would say at 150mm centres. I would be wary of mounting them to foamex. We mounted them to clear acrylic sheets in doulbe sided signs and they come out black. Painting the inside of the box with reflective white paint also makes a big difference.

regarding led’s these would be cheaper to run but as Robert said beware of cheap alternatives. The manufacture of leds isnt an exact science so when they come off the production line they are graded the rubbish ones are sold off cheap to the chancers and the quality ones are sold to the big guys.

For me Vink lighting who distribute GE’s products should be your first call as they have ranges to suite every application, sloan and are another reputable make.

LED tubes (ie flourescent tube replacements) are still a dometic project where quality and even light output are not so much of an issue.

hope this helps and good luck

[Colin Miller]

I agree with Mike your tubes should be 150mm from the face, but I would say at 150mm centres. I would be wary of mounting them to foamex. We mounted them to clear acrylic sheets in doulbe sided signs and they come out black. Painting the inside of the box with reflective white paint also makes a big difference.

regarding led’s these would be cheaper to run but as Robert said beware of cheap alternatives. The manufacture of leds isnt an exact science so when they come off the production line they are graded the rubbish ones are sold off cheap to the chancers and the quality ones are sold to the big guys.

For me Vink lighting who distribute GE’s products should be your first call as they have ranges to suite every application, sloan and are another reputable make.

LED tubes (ie flourescent tube replacements) are still a dometic project where quality and even light output are not so much of an issue.

hope this helps and good luck

[Matthew Greer]

What advantages does using a light box give you if you dont mind me asking?

[Ian Johnston]

Sorry to disagree Colin but 150 depth and 150 spacing will only give hotspots.
Correct spacing for 150 depth for even light is 300mm except at side which would be 150mm

[Simon Worrall]

quote Chris Wool:

I put a 150 w flood light on the floor pointing upwards. may not be technically correct but works well when required.

Thats exactly what I do chris! For the few times I’ve needed a backlight.

Simon.

[Peter Dee]

quote Matthew Greer:

What advantages does using a light box give you if you dont mind me asking?

Layering up vinyl layers such as adding an offset drop shadow to text prior to fitting on a substrate.

[Richard Wills]

This is something we’ve been planning – a backlit board for presenting prints to aluminium, where we have (if we’re luck) a 2mm bleed on a 36" print. We are welcoming the heat of fluorescents in the winter, but were unsure of specification of glass, to use to cut on.

Any suggestions – we’re looking at an 8×4′ table.