Lithophane lighting

[Dennis P.]

I've been making some lithophanes out of 1/4" Corian and have been reading about different ways to backlight them. It seems like the most of the suggestions might be somewhat costly. I had a thought about this and I would like to get some feedback from the readers here.

Being the holiday season with all the various displays of products in the stores, why couldn't a simple string of twenty clear miniture lights be used for lighting a litho? These are very cheap at about $1.29 each, already has a plug and no transformer is needed. I suppose you could install a diffuser panel between the lights and the back of the litho and even wire a small on/off switch to the back panel. Has anyone tried this before? I'd use this for lithos of a four by six inch size. If the lithos are larger, you could jump up to a 50 light set. Any thoughts?

Dennis

[Andy]

This might work with LED christmas lights, but I don't know if it would be a good idea to enclose a string of incandescant lights in an unventilated space.

Have you thought about using the LED's from a couple of Dollar-Store LED flashlights? I found some flashlights for $2.00 each which have 9 led's each. They use three AAA batteries, so they operate in parallel supplied by 4.5 volts. I was planning on making an array of 18 leds from two of these flashlights, and put two groups of 9 parallel connected LED's in series, supplied by a 9V, 300ma power brick.

[Andy]

Well, a couple of $2.00 cheapo dollar store flashlights works pretty darn good.

[Andy]

And there you go, a $4.00 lighting solution.

Maybe a bit more if you have to buy an AC adapter. I had a few in my junk box.

[CRFultz]

Thats pretty cool Andy, thanks for sharing

(i think the flat spot on the LED is the Cathode which would be negative. The Anode (positive) will have the longer lead on new diodes)

[lovebugjunkie]

Thanks for posting Andy, very good results, and I like the price.
george

[Andy]

Thanks.

The only other thing I'd like to do with it is to maybe warm up the light color a bit. Maybe I'll try coloring the face of the LED's with a yellow highlighter.

[Greasetattoo]

Don't they make Xmas lights in LED, now..
I believe so..

[Andy]

Yes, and I believe the NOMA ones come in "incandescant yellow" for a more natural look. I wonder how easy it would be to build that into a frame.

Are they normal LED's inserted into a fancy frosted lightbulb shaped transparent shell, then affixed with a plastic base, and inserted into a socket along the wiring?

Are they resin-molded into the lamp shape, and injection molded permanently to the wiring?

Would you just bunch up the string of lights and stuff them in the box?

[CNCDiva]

That lithophane looks awesome! Great work on the light box.
Here's another good option for lighting lithophanes:
1/4 inch thick acrylic light panels can be found here:
http://www.lithophanelights.com

LED light panel for lighting lithophanes.

[tonydude919]

That's a lot more expensive. For the price of that I can get 2 rolls of led lights for the same price or cheaper.

Tony

[martin54]

That's a lot more expensive. For the price of that I can get 2 rolls of led lights for the same price or cheaper.

Tony

I haven't made any of these so not really in a position to speak about pricing but don't forget that the price includes the panel as well which wouldn't be the case if you went with some other form of lighting.
It would also depend on what you were making the lithophane for as well, if your making for yourself then it would work out cheaper to buy the led's separately but if this is for a business & they are being made to sell then you may find that the extra time taken because you have to wire them up actually makes them more expensive.

[pops1964]

I just posted a note yesterday about how people do there lighting, I use a 20 count led christmas lights powered by 3 AAA batteries. For people that want a
portable box . Usually I use cold casthode lighting with a wall transformer total cost 10 - 15 dollars . but lights are warrantied for 30,000 hrs.

[Xxray]

I use a simple LED strip glued to the back of the box, probably the cheapest and simplest option of all.
I also use a controller which provides wireless on/off along with dimming and fading patterns, only adds $3 to the cost.

Is so bright that in darkness, the dimmer really comes in handy, and the flashing/fading patterns can be a very nice touch. I always like to see a variety of methods to accomplish a task, but I don't feel any need to experiment with lighting, I think I have found the optimum solution.

[pops1964]

Xray could you tell me about your lighting and how its powered ? and how do u add a remote for enhancement . Also litho's look great , mine are usually
7"x 9" to 8" x 10 mayme even 11" and my run time is between 10 -12 hrs on the finish pass wondering if anyone has a quicker way and I really want to try that acrylic . great work. Thanks POPS