Cheap lightbox for displaying large translucent poster on wall?
February 17, 2024 5:06 AM Subscribe
I want to print some art posters on translucent film, and display them on the wall on top of a rectangle of light (probably a flat LED lightbox), as inexpensively as possible. Recommendations on where to buy vs. DIY?
1. Any recommendations on where I can buy decent wall-mountable, flat LED lightboxes for this purpose, as inexpensive as possible? Looking for at least 2' x 3' but even larger sizes would be great too.
2. Can I DIY this for cheaper? I imagine I'd use some kind of acrylic rigid sheet with LEDs affixed to it, but I'm not sure how to do that and achieve even, diffused lighting rather than dark spots and random very-bright points where the LED bulbs are.
Is there a term for what I'm seeking? Flat "LED lightbox" returns some good results, but "lightbox" also refers to the reflective container you put around an object while photographing it when you want it well-lit and with a white background, so having some difficulty with correct search results.
Thanks!
1. Any recommendations on where I can buy decent wall-mountable, flat LED lightboxes for this purpose, as inexpensive as possible? Looking for at least 2' x 3' but even larger sizes would be great too.
2. Can I DIY this for cheaper? I imagine I'd use some kind of acrylic rigid sheet with LEDs affixed to it, but I'm not sure how to do that and achieve even, diffused lighting rather than dark spots and random very-bright points where the LED bulbs are.
Is there a term for what I'm seeking? Flat "LED lightbox" returns some good results, but "lightbox" also refers to the reflective container you put around an object while photographing it when you want it well-lit and with a white background, so having some difficulty with correct search results.
Thanks!
Best answer: To be fair to you as the OP, specifically answering your question, here is a company that sells boxes and transparency posters.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:22 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:22 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
Best answer: There is only one answer here.
“What’s up homey, it’s Tony”
https://www.instagram.com/manufacturers_lcsign
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 6:45 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
“What’s up homey, it’s Tony”
https://www.instagram.com/manufacturers_lcsign
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 6:45 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
Best answer: just spitballing things I would investigate if I were trying to to DIY this:
I know you can get acrylic sheets at the hardware store - I got a huge one to make an oversized poster frame once. I got mine in the thinnest thickness since I wanted it to be flexible like a real poster frame and i wanted a relatively lightweight frame - poster size thicker acrylic is way heavy. Cutting it to a different size would have been impossible for me to easily DIY nicely without professional tools or without cracking/messing it up so I just got lucky that the largest size available was bigger than my poster and planned around that size. I’d start with whatever size they have that’s closest to what you want to display (erring on the side of slightly larger). for me i got this at a hardware store but look online first to see what sizes and thicknesses they have. you probably want 2 acrylic layers - like 1 rigid and 1 flexible for sandwiching on top of the transparency/holding it in place if you can finagle that with your box design. example but put some thought into what the thicknesses should be and possibly get two different thicknesses, one more rigid and one flexible.
you could apply white frosted (light diffusion?) vinyl over the rigid layer. that would be challenging to do cleanly if you haven’t applied vinyl before, you’d prob want to get a lot of the vinyl for a lot of attempts. maybe there’s a more forgiving product out there you could use? they might even sell the acrylic frosted. you’d keep the more flexible acrylic piece clear to see the image through.
When I made my poster frame I used wooden canvas stretcher frames as the frame part. i’m guessing you’d want your acrylic sheet to cover the wood frame entirely (frame entirely behind the sheet, outer edges of frame flush with the sheet). they come in a variety of sizes. art store but determine sizes of pieces you need in advance. example
I used square/rectangular dowels glued down flat inside the stretcher frame to nest my poster/matting within my poster frame so the poster would be lower in the frame and the clear acrylic would cover over the entire poster and outside ridges and hold it in place. maybe inverting that in some way could work here. since the canvas stretcher frame pieces are like 2” wide I would look into gluing dowels around the outside of the frame pieces to hold the rigid acrylic sheet above the wood frame somehow. or if you are ok with seeing the 2” frame through the frosted sheet you could glue it direct onto the frame. there would still be some space on the inside for adding lighting.
for lighting the inside - they make skinny usb powered strip lights that are dimmable and come in various colors/warmths, i’d use that for the interior of the frame. example
back to the frame, you could maybe do a couple holder-upper bits (cut sanded flat dowels/cubes?) on the corners if you’re ok with light sneaking out the sides.
I’m not sure how you could get a good attachment of the clear acrylic sheet to the outside of the frame and sandwich the transparency in there, since you’ll want to save the space on the inside of the canvas stretcher for the rope lighting.
now that I think about it, if you’re ok with your thing having an actual visible frame around it you might be able to find an existing picture frame at a thrift store or something where the backing is the same size as your acrylic panel, then you could just replace any board backing with frosted acrylic. you could try to find one that’s already thick/deep enough to put a rope light behind the backing or build up behind it with hot glued wooden dowels so you have room for attaching your rope light. then you could paint the sides to make it look consistent.
You can get inkjet printable transparency sheets if you have a good photo printer and if you’re satisfied with standard printer size paper or less. This might be the part to not-DIY/custom order somewhere if you need the image to be super high quality.
sounds like a fun project but may not be super cheap! if you’re committed enough I think you can make it happen!
posted by crime online at 12:39 PM on February 17
I know you can get acrylic sheets at the hardware store - I got a huge one to make an oversized poster frame once. I got mine in the thinnest thickness since I wanted it to be flexible like a real poster frame and i wanted a relatively lightweight frame - poster size thicker acrylic is way heavy. Cutting it to a different size would have been impossible for me to easily DIY nicely without professional tools or without cracking/messing it up so I just got lucky that the largest size available was bigger than my poster and planned around that size. I’d start with whatever size they have that’s closest to what you want to display (erring on the side of slightly larger). for me i got this at a hardware store but look online first to see what sizes and thicknesses they have. you probably want 2 acrylic layers - like 1 rigid and 1 flexible for sandwiching on top of the transparency/holding it in place if you can finagle that with your box design. example but put some thought into what the thicknesses should be and possibly get two different thicknesses, one more rigid and one flexible.
you could apply white frosted (light diffusion?) vinyl over the rigid layer. that would be challenging to do cleanly if you haven’t applied vinyl before, you’d prob want to get a lot of the vinyl for a lot of attempts. maybe there’s a more forgiving product out there you could use? they might even sell the acrylic frosted. you’d keep the more flexible acrylic piece clear to see the image through.
When I made my poster frame I used wooden canvas stretcher frames as the frame part. i’m guessing you’d want your acrylic sheet to cover the wood frame entirely (frame entirely behind the sheet, outer edges of frame flush with the sheet). they come in a variety of sizes. art store but determine sizes of pieces you need in advance. example
I used square/rectangular dowels glued down flat inside the stretcher frame to nest my poster/matting within my poster frame so the poster would be lower in the frame and the clear acrylic would cover over the entire poster and outside ridges and hold it in place. maybe inverting that in some way could work here. since the canvas stretcher frame pieces are like 2” wide I would look into gluing dowels around the outside of the frame pieces to hold the rigid acrylic sheet above the wood frame somehow. or if you are ok with seeing the 2” frame through the frosted sheet you could glue it direct onto the frame. there would still be some space on the inside for adding lighting.
for lighting the inside - they make skinny usb powered strip lights that are dimmable and come in various colors/warmths, i’d use that for the interior of the frame. example
back to the frame, you could maybe do a couple holder-upper bits (cut sanded flat dowels/cubes?) on the corners if you’re ok with light sneaking out the sides.
I’m not sure how you could get a good attachment of the clear acrylic sheet to the outside of the frame and sandwich the transparency in there, since you’ll want to save the space on the inside of the canvas stretcher for the rope lighting.
now that I think about it, if you’re ok with your thing having an actual visible frame around it you might be able to find an existing picture frame at a thrift store or something where the backing is the same size as your acrylic panel, then you could just replace any board backing with frosted acrylic. you could try to find one that’s already thick/deep enough to put a rope light behind the backing or build up behind it with hot glued wooden dowels so you have room for attaching your rope light. then you could paint the sides to make it look consistent.
You can get inkjet printable transparency sheets if you have a good photo printer and if you’re satisfied with standard printer size paper or less. This might be the part to not-DIY/custom order somewhere if you need the image to be super high quality.
sounds like a fun project but may not be super cheap! if you’re committed enough I think you can make it happen!
posted by crime online at 12:39 PM on February 17
TV innards
https://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-turn-a-broken-lcd-tv-into-a-diy-led-light-panel/
posted by at at 8:55 PM on February 17
https://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-turn-a-broken-lcd-tv-into-a-diy-led-light-panel/
posted by at at 8:55 PM on February 17
I searched light box on ebay and got some ideas; better search terms might yield useful equipment.
posted by theora55 at 9:01 PM on February 17
posted by theora55 at 9:01 PM on February 17
Best answer: FWIW, if you can build a box that can fit the poster comfortably, you can easily mount LED strips inside to backlight the front stuff. And white LED strips are generally cheap.
Another *potential* approach is assemble a bunch of these "light pads", normally used to trace stuff, as tiles to build up to the size you need. The A4, at 30cm x 20 cm at $5.49 each, seems to be the most economical for price per sqcm.
posted by kschang at 8:35 PM on February 18
Another *potential* approach is assemble a bunch of these "light pads", normally used to trace stuff, as tiles to build up to the size you need. The A4, at 30cm x 20 cm at $5.49 each, seems to be the most economical for price per sqcm.
posted by kschang at 8:35 PM on February 18
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OK, because an LED TV is a LED lilght box with a digital transparency on it. I mean I'm looking at a 3x2' 4K LED TV that cost me $350.
I honestly can think of no situation where a one-off transparency on a light box would be superior to a TV screen. And with a TV you can change the picture.
We've come so far in 30 years, that's for sure.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:18 AM on February 17 [2 favorites]