How to Make a Light Box for Drawing?

Are you more serious with drawing & getting too bored of unreliable, clunky, tracing methods? A lightbox is accommodating for any artist, painter, designer, and who loves to draw.

Although you can apply tracing paper, this is an uninspiring & time-consuming process. It was hence getting bored; I also decided to make a lightbox & completed successfully. In this context, I am going to tell you How to make a lightbox for drawing?

Let’s make your light box for sketching whenever you like without wasting more.

Look: How to make a light box for drawing?

In this context, I enlisted how I make a light box for drawing also, different methods of making.

Make a fast light box:

The best advantage is that it runs with ready-made LED strips & you don’t need to do any electrical task. To learn the process, just follows my plans.

Essential tools:

  • Dado stack.
  • Miter saw.
  • Table saw.

Materials you need to collect:

  • (2 x 4 ft.) Plywood-1/4-in.
  • (8 ft.)1×4 boards.
  • Frosted Plexiglas.
  • Foil tape.
  • LED light tape.

With a few hours & some materials, I enlisted up to quickly make a simple folksy light box for drawing. Let’s start!

Section list:

Key Quantity Part Dimensions Material
A 2 Short sides ¾”*3-1/2”*17-1/4” 1*4 Pine
B 2 Long sides ¾”*3-1/2”*17-1/4” 1*4 Pine
C 1 Top ¼”*18”*24”

 

Frosted plexiglas.

 

D 1 Base ¼”*18”*24”

 

¼”plywood

 

Step instruction:

Step-1: Jerk dadoes stack into the edge.

Around ¾ inch cut the dadoes from every edge into 1*4 stocks.

Step-2: Cut the sides:

Take a 1×4 board & make two pieces of 24-3/4-in long also make 17-1/4-in another two. Then cut plywood (¼-in.) to 18×24 in.

Step-3: Make a reflective outside:

Appling the foil tape makes a reflective outside of the boards and plywood.

Step-4- Create a cord hole:

By drilling, create a 1/2-in. hole, at the edge of the long sides, to out the power cord.

Step-5- Join the box:

Join the three sides of the box, keeping the plywood in situ with some screws.

Step-6-Set up the lights:

The plywood bottom set up the LED lights nicely and put out the LED’s edge side through the 1/2-inside hole.

Step-7- Adjust the frosted Plexiglas:

Adjust the frosted Plexiglas tighten the border with screws. Finally, you can start tracing!

Some inexpensive light box ideas for tracing:

You can make a light box by applying that you already have on hand like a simple solution.

Idea no-1: Using Flashlight.

  • In a matter of seconds, make your tracing box using a flashlight & a clear bin!
  • Simply set a flashlight core of a clear plastic container standing mode. The shining light will make the picture visible placed on top through the sheet of paper.
  • Take a perfect size plastic container with your flashlight to work correctly! This idea may be a great alternative to a light box.

Idea no-2: Using an old flatbed scanner.

  • If you have any flat-bed scanner & you don’t use it any longer to scan pictures, you can build a light box using this too merely. Just for this purpose, don’t purchase a new one.
  • First, confirm the unit lights up without any adjustment of the computer & unplug it. Then with an electrical outlet, plug it.
  • Over the glass, you can set a white paper to diffuse the light if you find it too bright.

Idea no-3: Using kitchen table.

  • This method is lightweight and doesn’t need any electricity. If you have four legs supported a kitchen table that can sustain expansion, leaves-you can make a light box.
  • Of course, a center leg won’t work for this method & this light box is not transportable.
  • Unlock the table and replace the table leaf with a piece of Plexiglas. You can use a storm window instead of Plexiglas then apply a table lamp on the floor below the Plexiglas.
  • To check the light box, make the light on; you can change bulb wattage if necessary or add fog or shade to the Plexiglas to minimize the glare.

All in all, How to make a light box for drawing? It isn’t a challenging task; you can make a new one by following our instruction or making a simple one very quickly whatever you love to do.

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