400 watts of pure power

[whridlsoncestood]

And no vinyl to work on it with. Made this over the weekend and have been chomping at the bit to use it. Until now I had a makeshift 2 gallon fish tank with a shop light in it. It sucked. Finally stopped being lazy. Contains 4 100 watt CFL's and a nice little switch. My vinyl will be on my door step tomorrow afternoon so it should be a good weekend.

[Jeronimo]

I told you to take some of my vinyl you el-tardo.

[marmoset]

Have you considered frosting the acrylic/glass to diffuse the light and reduce the lights' hot spots?

[ChUcK]

Have you considered frosting the acrylic/glass to diffuse the light and reduce the lights' hot spots?

My thoughts exactly. I think that rig is very kick-ass though. I wish I had a bigger light table- mine appears to be 10 x 14 ish, barely big enough to work with notebook paper. I get plenty of light from it, some skinny 12-inch fluorescent, f8t5.

[jubuttib]

I'm truly hoping those are 100W equivalent CFLs (meaning around 23W a piece). If not, they should be the brightest things in the known universe.

[Roy]

They have some HUGE CFL's out there. More than 100 watts. I'm sure these are not them, but they are out there.

[jubuttib]

They have some HUGE CFL's out there. More than 100 watts. I'm sure these are not them, but they are out there.

The biggest CFLs I've ever seen were 52W that are equivalent to at least ~150W incandescent bulbs, and those are real beasts. Real 100W CFLs would be insanely bright, so much so that I really doubt they'd sell them for normal home use, at least with a standard socket.

[whridlsoncestood]

I do plan on doing something with the glass at a later time. Looking for the best options. But with so much light spots are not all the prevalent. And yes they are 100 watt equivalents. Still bright as hell.

On the glass I am not sure if a film of sorts will hold up to the temps that can be had by the bulbs over time. I don't want some plastic film yellowing on me in spots. And actually frosting the glass requires chemicals that I do not have.

[jubuttib]

I do plan on doing something with the glass at a later time. Looking for the best options. But with so much light spots are not all the prevalent. And yes they are 100 watt equivalents. Still bright as hell.

Oh yeah, definitely. Imagine if they really were 100 Watts though. =)

And actually frosting the glass requires chemicals that I do not have.

That or sand-blowing it. You probably don't have the equipment, but you might get that done cheap.

[ferretdance03]

I built a light box almost identical to that. For 'frosted' glass I used a piece of regular glass, available cut at Lowe's, and lightly spray painted the bottom side with white paint. From a distance, lightly spritz the paint to make it look frosted. Rudamentary but it works.

[Roy]

Couldnt you drag it on the pavement or something? rough it up a little bit? A poor mans sand blasting

I dont think you'd even need it, but it sounds like it could work. I use an aquarium and desk lamp and it works fine.

[turso]

I'm betting a light layer of white spray paint on the bottom of the plexiglass would work fine as a diffuser.

[ChUcK]

another cheap frosting method would be to tape some parchment or tracing paper to one side.

Regardless, have you cut anything out yet? How does it work?

[Dogma]

Very nice work. You could get a little more brightness, and maybe more uniform light dispersion if you paint the inside of the box white. If you're worried about heat resistance, I think they sell 'high heat' spray paint at most hardware stores. Could maybe use it on the glass too, but I'm not sure how much light it would let through.

Another way to approach the glass/diffusion issue would be to go to the hardware store and look in the fluorescent ceiling light section. They sell those sheets of plastic that cover the lights in the ceilings of most office buildings. I think technically they call them lenses. There's different plastic patterns depending on how much you want the light to be affected. You could cut it to fit and put it under your glass.

If you're worried about heat buildup in general, you could cut a hole in the box and put in a muffin fan like in a computer.

[whridlsoncestood]

I will be cutting some out tomorrow morning. When I use it I usualy have white paper down underneath and that dispereses it enough for me. Will let everyone know how it works in the afternoon.