

HOMEMADE LIGHT TABLE HOW TO
*You can actually drill a 'cord out' hole in glass bottles, I just want to show you how to wire a base that isn't possible to drill into without risk of breaking, like pottery. They fit in many different styles of decor because of how neutral they are - and can rely on the shade choice to direct its style. Glass bottle table lamps are a very classic look and always remind me of New England. Of the 3 lamp options to choose from in this lesson, this is the easiest to put together. Right now, I’m musing over some thread choices and stitch choices, so I’ll discuss that process with you, too.Choice #1: Shows how to lamp-ify a base w/ no cap, a flat bottom, and non-drillable walls*. These projects will be taking up most of my time in the next few weeks, which means I should have a lot to show you as I go. So that’s what I’m using these days for transferring my current projects. And voilá! A perfect light table with a large hard surface, good illumination, and a relatively small dent in the pocketbook. I clamped the utility light on the leg of the table and turned the lamp up towards the plexiglass. I usually only have one up at a time, to save on space, but the other is leaning against the cabinets there, so I used the one that’s up to support one side of the plexiglass, and the edge of the folded one to support the other side. I’m working outside in my garage-gone-studio, where I have two 6-foot folding tables. You’ll need two “sides” to your light table. Use a bulb that puts out enough light – the equivalent of 100 watts or more, if possible. The bulb is separate, but most folks have spare light bulbs floating around the house, so you probably wouldn’t have to invest too much for the bulb. They cost about $11 at a local hardware store.

This is the kind with the extra-strong grip and an on-off switch. I happened to have on hand a utility clamp light. I bought mine at a local hardware store, and I left the protective film on one side of it, just to help diffuse the light a bit. Here in the US, for an 18″ x 24″ sheet, it’ll cost around $20 – $22. The thin plexiglass (a bit less than 1/8″ thick) is too flexible and won’t work as well. It should be around 1/4″ thick, so that it is firm and hard, even in a large sheet, and can support you and your work while you’re drawing. So to see anything detailed with clarity, the design needs to be centered right over the middle of the area – no good, if you’re tracing a larger embroidery design.įor a larger tracing surface, consider a piece of either clear or translucent white plexiglass. For one thing, the brightest part of the tracing area is smack in the middle, and as you move towards the sides, the light grows dimmer and dimmer.
HOMEMADE LIGHT TABLE CRACKED
The small light tracers that are sold for basic tracing of small things (and have about a 9×12″ surface) are more affordable, but the 9×12″ surface is not everything it’s cracked up to be. Now, if you can afford to, you can certainly buy large, pre-made light tables that are used for drafting and so forth, but they are wickedly expensive. wistfully recalling the spent days of my youth, and waxing melancholic over the joys of living in a cramped dorm room, I bethought myself of plexiglass. The project I’m concentrating on first (“Proserpina”) is about 12″ long, which necessitates either moving the design around on my minuscule plastic light box (which is actually a kid’s tracing box from a local craft store), or finding some other solution to transferring the design. I’ve been venturing into some new embroidery projects which I already briefly introduced to you a while ago. I ended up using it practically permanently as an extension to my desk, even though it meant there wasn’t a whole lot of room left in the room! It was big – about 36″ x 40″ – and it was free. I put my desk lamp under it, and used the make-shift plexiglass table as my light box. It was 1/4″ thick, very stiff, not quite as brittle (or breakable!) as glass, and a whole lot lighter. But I had a friend! And he had some left over plexiglass! So he gave me a large sheet of it. But light tables were way beyond my means. When I lived in a dormitory in college, I was desperate for a light table for tracing embroidery designs.
