Light box defuser material

[2stroke (Jay)]

So what are you guys using in your light box's for defuser material? I was thinking white acrylic sheet? Planing on using a 17" LCD backlight for the job but can't find anything to use for the dam light defuser

[Dennis]

Bunning’s sell sheets of white opaque plexiglass for around $40 if I remember correctly. The sheet size is something like 1200mm x 900mm or maybe 1000mm x 600mm, i.e. not too big to fit in a small car.

Cheers

Dennis

[alistairsam]

I bought mine off ebay for around $12. that's for an 8inch reflector.
there's heaps available from local sellers.

[Tandum (Robin)]

I get mine from a Gassier (Glass Merchant) at Moss street. They cut it to size for me and it's square .

[BlackWidow (Mardy)]

I used tracing paper. Two large sheets. I have two defusers in my light box that are 3" apart. I used strip LED's in the back corners of the box. The whole thing is very very light weight and works very well.



Mardy

[2stroke (Jay)]

Cheers guys, lol just needed to hear what you guys were using thanks Would go with tracing paper but i can see bad things happening in my case. Lol to many projects on the go this ATM & DIY section is going to kill me in the end hahaha. Need to design this so it can be used with all my scopes for a space and time saver, looks like some planing to go into action

[rcheshire (Rowland)]

Hi Jay. I picked up two disks of white/pearl and frost 3mm acrylic at the local Plexiglass fabricators.I found the spectrum dominated by green, though. This seems typical of acrylic sheet and used shoe polish/dye to bias the spectrum, based on reading I had done on the subject - not the boot polish, that was my idea. Rub on and polish off to nothing - it worked, providing more blue and red than green.

I guess it depends on the design. Whether you are using LED's or EL panel which tends toward blue. A slim design is an EL panel with diffuser.

Rowland.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

I used pearl acrylic 3mm for mine. I placed my LEDs around this, on the inside of sealed section of the box. Seems to give really even light coverage.

[2stroke (Jay)]

Originally Posted by rcheshire

Hi Jay. I picked up two disks of white/pearl and frost 3mm acrylic at the local Plexiglass fabricators.I found the spectrum dominated by green, though. This seems typical of acrylic sheet and used shoe polish/dye to bias the spectrum, based on reading I had done on the subject - not the boot polish, that was my idea. Rub on and polish off to nothing - it worked, providing more blue and red than green.

I guess it depends on the design. Whether you are using LED's or EL panel which tends toward blue. A slim design is an EL panel with diffuser.


Rowland.

Grabbed a defuser of a light from bunnings sunday for my first go (nothing else open
) it was 3mm pearl pexil, but at a very high cost haha considering i dint want the whole lamp shade.

Looks like ill be going the EL panel route, have a old 17" for the doner once i get it figured out. Started on a light box and wasn't happy with the defuser doing a even job (4 touch bulbs), lol just set my 48" LCD to a white background on the HTPC and stuck the plexiglass against it and the results were great. Cheers on the spectrum info, i came across and article the other day about editing flats to fix using the old glob method. It's just a shame i wasted so much time on a constructing the lightbox only to not be happy with the results, lol it looks to good to waste.

Originally Posted by Shano592

I used pearl acrylic 3mm for mine. I placed my LEDs around this, on the inside of sealed section of the box. Seems to give really even light coverage.

Have used tested this in FITs lib ect? wouldn't mind hearing results More worried about center being dull and edges going light dark ect, maybe i'am to picky lol, its what sort have left me trying the oldschool design.

[Poita (Peter)]

I keep picturing exploding light boxes

I go to the tip and get broken LCD monitors and get the diffuser panel out of those. Works a treat and are basically free.

If you are using an LCD monitor as the light source, you can adjust the background colour until you get the colour you want to cater to the panel.

[rcheshire (Rowland)]

monitors make good flats. I often do that if I'm in a hurry.