This is a lightbox made in the design of Chernobyl “Entrance On Your Own Risk!” radiation signs. It's not huge with a narrow aspect ratio but it does catch the eye. The originals have the trifoil in black. If you prefer the original/authentic black, it's an easy change in Bambu Studio. The 3mf is set to print in black, yellow, red, and white PLA.
This lightbox features the light tight hanger, walls printed on the back instead of the lens (makes wiring easy), a groovy bevel on the front lens to look nice, two back styles, and a very helpful “brightness ring”.
The optional “brightness ring” improves light reflection from the walls to brighten up the lens image. It seems to help brightness significantly and is an easy and quick print that slip fits into the lightbox back. There is a white diffuser that prints on the inside of the lens to greatly strengthen the design, and a reflector integrated into the back. If used, the brightness ring is where you attach the self adhesive LED strip to light it up like a runaway reactor core!
“3.6 Roentgen - Not great. Not terrible.”
The second change is wire routing. I added channels to route the wire on the back of the light box housing. It reduces the holes to just one and no fiddly plugs - just fiddly wire routing. 😁 The channels are 4mm wide to fit most small wires but use little tabs to keep the wire in place. If your wire is too big to fit past the retainer tabs, just cut them off as needed. Or, just cover over the wire channel with electrical tape to retain the wire if too small.
Note - this new wire routing will need to have wires soldered after passing the pigtail into the lightbox due to the wire hole only being 4mm in diameter. The LED strips and controllers I use now need soldering anyway and you can see the way I do it in the photos. Strips like the Maker's Supply (https://us.store.bambulab.com/collections/makers-supply/products/6500k-white-led-light-strip) will need to be desoldered or cut to feed the wire through and resoldered with the new wiring accommodation design.
There's also a more traditional back included with fiddly plugs that will let you feed the LED strip through from the outside. You can print whichever one works best for you. If you print and rate, please let me know which back you prefer since it's a little bother including both.
Nothing special about printing. It's set up for textured PEI on the lens plate and the cool plate on the back and brightness ring. If you are having plate adhesion issues on it, make sure your build plates are clean and dry. I use glue on the cool plate with excellent results. I don't use glue on the textured PEI but YMMV. Dry filament really helps with printing the lens.
I just use standard 12V LED self-adhesive strips to light up my lightboxes. There's lots of sources out there and most will already have their favorites. Incandescent lights pose a fire risk and the box is very enclosed. A single loop of LEDs is all you need.
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