Brace yourselves, darlings, for a riveting tutorial that will illuminate your life, quite literally! Yours truly, Chris Maher, will guide you through a DIY LED Lightbox project that’s a riot from start to finish. We’ll embark on a journey of snipping, soldering, and circumventing common DIY hiccups, fearlessly embracing our youthful spirits of invention. Oh, and prepare for an infectious, energy-charged ambiance courtesy of Hotham, Luke Bergs, and LiQWYD, as these maestros provide the background tracks to our LED dance.
Hop on as we make lumber slices dance to our tune, forming a gorgeous box that proudly reflects every beam of LED brilliance. That’s not all, we’ll explore fitting the groove at the back with a poster board and etching out vinyl designs your neighbors will envy. And the best part? Your support of this creative chaos, liking, commenting, subscribing, sharing or purchasing via my links, moves my inspiration meter to new heights! Together, we’ll hone the art of customized light magic, one LED strip at a time.
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Materials and Tools
Ladies, gentlemen, and every fantastic creator in between – welcome to my guide on how to create your own DIY LED Lightbox. But first, a warning: you’ll need to gather a rib-tickling array of tinker tools and mischievous materials. Get ready to say hello to some lumber, a handful of soldering tools, and some sparkling LED lights because those tiny twinkling stars are going to be our best friends. We’re also going to be using an ESP8266 Wi-Fi board to jazz up the whole light show and, of course, a power supply to ensure our show stays on the road. Beyond these electronics, you’ll want to get hands on a poster board, a Cricut maker, some vinyl, a clear stencil sheet and a squeegee. I know, it’s like we are preparing for a DIY awards show.
Preparing the Boxes
Cutting the lumber
Making the boxes requires some wrist work. To start off, we’re going to take our lumber which has zero idea about the magnificent future awaiting it, and we’ll cut it into pieces slightly over 13 inches long.
Forming the box shape
Making a square box involves some geometry. Put your thinking caps on and cut a 45-degree angle on each piece, ensuring each piece measures 13 inches on the longer side. Oh, I’m hearing the cries already but believe me, if I could calculate it, you can too.
Creating channels
Next, we channel our inner sculptor. Cut channels half an inch from the top of the wood, about 3 1/8 of an inch deep. A little tip, keep one out of every four wooden pieces channel free. It has a special destiny lying ahead that allows for sliding in and out of the box.
Painting the interior
Aren’t we painting the town red? No, dear friend, we’re painting the box interior white for LED light reflection. Seems like we’ve found the easier way to bring light into our lives. Or boxes.
Adding notches
It’s time to prove you’re not a notch below anyone. Add small notches to the bottom of each piece of wood so the light doesn’t play hide and seek, darting out of our fabulous lightboxes.
Assembling the boxes
In the words of the Avengers, it’s time to assemble these boxes! One piece with a channel, a little wood glue, some painter’s tape, and voila, you have a box full of hopes and dreams.
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Installing LED Lights
Choosing the LED lights
Unveiling our best friends —the ws 2812 b LED lights, controlled by our good mate, the ESP8266 Wi-Fi board. They’ll be throwing some amazing light parties, powered by a 5 volt, 60 amp, and 300-watt power supply.
Connecting and routing power
Can you twist and shout? Because it’s time to twist some wires. Measure out about 15 inches and connect the power. You’ll see some routes from the LED controller to the LED strip in each box. It’s a twisty ride for the light bulbs who never experienced this thrill at the factory.
Testing the LED strips
Does stage fright strike at the oddest times or what? We’re going to pull our LED strips up on stage for a dress rehearsal in each box before the grand show.
Connecting all LED strips
The intermission is over and all LED actors are summoned back on stage. A few moments of wire manipulation and they’re all connected.
Preventing light leakage
Here’s the big secret: to keep the suspense alive and prevent light leakage, we’ll fit the groove at the back with poster board cut into 12-inch squares—a simple hack for a seamless spectacle.
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Creating Designs
Using a Cricut maker
Welcome to a designer’s working house. Using a Cricut maker, we’re going to create designs, each one more outstanding than the previous one. Yes, you have my permission to feel like a famous couture designer in a grand Parisian studio.
Software for design conversion
We’ll take help from specific software to convert our designs into useable files. It’s just like learning a second language, but a lot easier.
Cutting vinyl
Unleash your inner hair stylist! Except, this time you’re trimming and cutting vinyl rather than hair.
Applying the image to the stencil sheet
Presto! Now, we transfer our vinyl masterpiece onto a clear stencil sheet. Here, take the squeegee and say farewell to any pesky bubbles.
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Interchangeable Designs
Sliding the stencil sheet into the box
It’s simple enough, once you’ve been through all those complicated steps. As easily as sliding a piece of toast from the toaster, you can slide your design into the box.
Modifying and rearranging designs
Today’s spaceman may become tomorrow’s daffodil. Easily modify and rearrange designs with the channel in the box playing the role of your assistant.
Conclusion
And there you have it! The foolproof way to not just light up a room, but bring it to glorious life with our DIY LED Lightbox. So make a fresh cup of coffee, pull out your tools, and get ready to make magic. And remember, do it with a dollop of your brilliant inventiveness and an immense amount of humor. Happy creating! Aaaaand cut, it’s a wrap!
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I’m sharing my DIY LED Lightbox Idea and I hope you enjoy watching the video!
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Here’s a how-to video I made on installing WLED on an esp8266 device: • How to install WLED on ESP8266 and co…
Soldering Tools:
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For the Light Saber Blaster and Mega Man effect, I placed a Govee Glide light bar next to my design. Govee Glide: https://amzn.to/3rEBJnP
If you’d like to recreate this project using Govee LED lights: https://amzn.to/2UalWi9 and avoid all wiring/soldering/power steps, consider watching this video: • Easy DIY Large NANOLEAF LED Wall Pane… at the 10 minute mark for installation guidance.
Links to my past DIY projects:
RGB Baseboard Trim: • DIY RGB BASEBOARD TRIM – START TO FIN…
Customizable Images: • DIY LED Lightbox – Full Walkthrough -…
RGB Light Project: • Crazy DIY Light – Complete Walkthrough
LED Strip Diffuser Ideas: • DIY LED STRIP DIFFUSER IDEAS
Hexagon Project: • Making My Own Version of Nanoleaf Hex…
Corner Project: • Easy DIY Corner Lights – Full Walkthrough…
Edge Lit Designs: • DIY LED Gaming Room Lights – Acrylic …
Govee Glide: • DIY Govee Glide / LIFX Beam Using Only …
Black Acrylic Floating Shelves: • DIY Nanoleaf – Black LED Acrylic
Song: Hotham – The One
License (Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0 Unported)
Video music link: • Hotham – The One (Vlog No Copyright Mus…
And more…
Courtesy of Vlog No Copyright Music.
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Maren
LED lightboxes are overrated! Just use a flashlight and some colored paper, its cheaper!