How to Make a Light Box

In this project we will be making a light box that will light up the acrylic piece in it when you switch it on and off.

Materials

• 12"x12" 1/8 transparent acrylic sheets ( i used fluorescent) - $4.59
• PLA 3D printing fillament
• sand paper
• a small file
• a switching adapter
• wire cutters
• red wire
• shrink heat
• heat gun
• soldering iron
• switch
• soldering
• led strip
• super glue
• 
  

Equipment

• Epilog Fution Edge 24"x36" 70Watt Laser
• 3D printer
• xs tech router

This section will be about how to start your google draw(or tracing)along with the engraving part. You are going to start by choosing a picture that you would like engvraved into the acrylic sheet. I reccoment something easy because you will be tracing this in google draw (this will take you to the light box acrylic template that you can copy and use) Then you will take the template i gave you and put it in your own google draw. Then you will take the design and make sure the parts you are going to trace fit inside the template. You will then go the line button (its inbetween the select button and the shape button).The line button will have 7 opitions. I reccoment using tracing your image with curve ,polyline and line connectors. I also recomend having a mouse during the tracing part. when you finish your tracing you will need to make the tracing black by filling it it.after your done tracing you will need to find a website that you can buy a 12"x12" 18 transparent acrylic sheet. That will cost around $4.59 if you shop from Estreet.

In this section I will be telling you how to make your box. For this you will need to have tinkercad open and open on a new 3d project. We will also be using millimeters. start off with two squares. one of the squares dimensions are 30 height, 120 length, and 40 width. By the time you put in these dimensions it will start looking like a rectangle. Now the second box's dimensions are 40 height, 117 length and 37 width. you will also need to raise it by 1.50. This box needs to be turned into a "hole" and the first box we made will remain solid. Put these two boxes together. Now let's get started in creating the slot hole. This part holds the acrylic. bring out two more squares. The first aqurea dimensions will be 28 high, 100 length, and 7 width. The second one will be 35 hidth , 97 length and 4 width. Now repeat the last part of the box's steps and do that to the slot holes. Now you need a wire hole. The dimensions are 23 high, 4 width, and 4 length. The switch hoes dimensions are 14 High, 20 length, 20 width. The last two picture with the pink box is what my final project looked like.

In this section, I will be telling you about the steps of your led and how to make it work. The light source we are using is a led strip. When we start soldering you will need solder wire , a soldering iron, brass wire pad,"helping hands or alligator clips and a shrink wrap and a heat gun to go along with that. The first step is turning on the soldering iron. You're going to want to hold the iron like a pencil but only touch the top rubber part (everything below will be around 300 degrees) then you are going to grab your solder wire and just put some of it on your iron tip and then put it in your wire pad and give it a few spins. This will make you have a clean and nice tip to use when you finally use it. I recommend doing this every time you use it. Now you're going to want to grab your switch adapter . You will need to grab some wire cutters and up off the end and just split the two wires that are attached to the stitch adaptor and drag the two wires through the wire hole on your box and your switch hole. After you split them one wire is dashed and one has letters on it. The dashed line is your negative and the other one is the positive. Now that your two wires are split and you have identified the negative and positive one you will need your switch and your positive wire. You're going to strip that wire a half or an inch, put a shrink wrap around the wire (DO THIS NOW ), wrap the positive wire around the prong that's closest to the edge and wrap it around that prong. Now you're going to get your alligator clips and make sure the wire and the other prong on your switch. Now solder together your positive and one of the switch prongs together. After you did that pull the shrink wrap and shrink it with a heat gun around the prong and exposed wire. Now grab your led and at the end will be copper connectors that are a brass color . You will solder a red and the negative black to the two dots. Make sure you strip the red one a small small amount and the negative black one an inch or a little less. Now slip a heat shrink over the led and get it to the black and red wire that you just soldered and shrink it over the wire. Now test it! Congratulations you just made a led work!

Finally is the acrylic base that will go on the bottom of your box. Your going to need acrylic. we used black and white. then you're going to find a tech router and put in the dimensions of the base in the picture. once you finish making your base you can a-line your led strip and glue it all together.