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Old 27th January 2021, 09:38 AM
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GoodOldNorm GoodOldNorm is offline
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Default Led negative viewer / light box, anyone made one?

I am thinking of making a 240v mains LED light negative viewer from a square flat led ceiling light. Has anyone made one? Construction, power (wattage and colour of light) and source of parts most appreciated.
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Old 27th January 2021, 10:59 AM
EdmundH EdmundH is offline
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Unless you really want a project it's probably cheaper to buy a panel. For around £20 you can buy an LED 'tracing panel' on eBay or Amazon. Here's the A4 one I use, its usb, so you can plug it into a phone charger or computer to power it.
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Old 27th January 2021, 11:06 AM
marty marty is offline
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Hello, Norm. Here's my take at it. I wanted a very simple and compact solution. As an illuminator I used a 15W 40cm fluorescent tube, it's a long time since I built it and then the leds weren't yet so popular in domestic lighting application. I chose a classic trunk design and realized it with 10mm plywood. The base is a bit thicker, 18mm if I remeber correctly. The assembly is all made with screws, I used a rectangular profile hardwood as an internal support in the corners (not visible in the picture).I used a table saw to cut the material to size but eventually it can be done with an hand saw.
The final dimensions are 22x24x52 cm and the table itself is 2.5mm white plexuglass.

Cheers, M.
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Old 27th January 2021, 11:28 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EdmundH View Post
Unless you really want a project it's probably cheaper to buy a panel. For around £20 you can buy an LED 'tracing panel' on eBay or Amazon. Here's the A4 one I use, its usb, so you can plug it into a phone charger or computer to power it.
Good idea, my son has one of these but the white plastic has a textured diamond pattern on it which shows through the negatives. Is the plastic on your panel flat and smooth?
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Old 27th January 2021, 12:40 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EdmundH View Post
Unless you really want a project it's probably cheaper to buy a panel. For around £20 you can buy an LED 'tracing panel' on eBay or Amazon. Here's the A4 one I use, its usb, so you can plug it into a phone charger or computer to power it.
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Good idea, my son has one of these but the white plastic has a textured diamond pattern on it which shows through the negatives. Is the plastic on your panel flat and smooth?
I too bought one of these, off ebay I think, for about £7 including p/p, but mine is A5.

It's a perfectly flat screen and I power mine off of a small 'emergency mobile phone charger battery', which has a couple of different sizes of USB sockets. As well as it's intention, it can also be used as a very small / pocket-able battery pack. I got my first one at the pound shop and went back and discovered a stronger one for about £3. With this I can plug in the tablet anywhere I want, without mains leads etc.

Ah, just found the packet for it. the brand is 'power geek' and is a 2200mAH 'Power Bank'. This is the second, more powerful one I got. Just looking on ebay, you can get one from £4.45 :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...acat=0&_sop=15

And the 'led tablets' are cheap enough, and come in A5 or A4 sizes:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...dhi=25&_sop=15

Terry S
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Old 27th January 2021, 12:53 PM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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Nothing so swish for me.
I had an old rectangular safe lamp in amongst a job lot I purchased.
The filter glass was faded and mottled.
After removing all of the coloured coating, I ended up with a clear glass and an opal glass.
It is only 5" x 7" but it works fine for me.
Cheers.
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Old 28th January 2021, 07:37 AM
EdmundH EdmundH is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodOldNorm View Post
Good idea, my son has one of these but the white plastic has a textured diamond pattern on it which shows through the negatives. Is the plastic on your panel flat and smooth?

The panel I use is smooth.


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Old 28th January 2021, 11:49 AM
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David Lingham David Lingham is offline
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I made one a few years ago from some off cuts of MDF, a small light tube and an A4 sheet of semi opaque plastic.
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Old 1st February 2021, 11:29 AM
tillari tillari is offline
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I have an old one, but the tube was burned. I replaced it by led strips...
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Old 1st February 2021, 07:01 PM
JOReynolds JOReynolds is offline
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Default iPad as lightbox

I have seen a small one in Tiger (Copenhagen) that is supplied with a bag of capital letters. It's only about £10 and is battery-operated. I have not used it.

A while back I was asked to email some old Kodachromes and 6x6 Ektachromes of sculpture. I don't have a scanner, so I mounted a my digital camera (elderly by modern standards) on my Meopta enlarger column (with a 3/8" to 1/4" adapter) and my wife showed me how to get a completely white screen on my Apple iPad. The results all needed a bit of blue taken out in Photoshop but fulfilled the exhibition curator's needs.
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