Home made light box for taking flats on my gso f4 newt

[steve51450]

HOMEMADE LIGHT BOX

not finished yet, i will add to the post as i go along in the hope that this helps other people to make their own, as i have found taking flats almost impossible via either the t shirt or the pc screen method. I think total cost so far including a £5 drink to the sign man is just under £20 and that includes the cost of the hot melt glue gun

SMALLER SCOPES

this can be made to fit any scope that is smaller just by making the diameter of the hole cut in the bottom smaller

LARGER SCOPES

just make the whole thing a little bigger mine is 300mm x 300mm for an 8" Newtonian

For a 10" Newtonian you would make it 350mm x 350mm

LIST OF MATERIALS

9mm mdf 24 off 25mm x 300mm (side supports)2 0ff 300mm x 300mm (top & bottom)

hot melt glue gun

from a local sign makers offcuts box

2 off twin wall light weight plastic sheet (600mm x 500mm) the type that you see nailed to trees etc, it looks like white cardboard (sides)

3 off white perspex 300mm x 300mm (diffusers)

4 off white led lights (still to be sourced) now found, old light fitting so my favorite ie free

i still have to fit the lights in the top of the unit and make the whole outside black so no extraneous light can enter the unit. I started by putting a cut through one wall of the twin wall plastic sheet to enable me to fold the sheet without loosing strength. I then hot melted the mdf strips in place

that is the bottom of the light box above, the measurement from the 1st sheet of perspex is about 75mm. This will allow you to sit the end of your scope in a little without the light box falling off

the two section are then put together and the corners are hot melted together, i will tape them at a later date for added strength. Below you are looking through the top of the light box where the 300mm x 300mm mdf will be placed with the lights fitted into it

below you are looking at the bottom of the light box in which i have fitted 1 piece of the 300mm x 300mm 9mm mdf with a hole cut into it to suite the diameter of my scope (approx 240mm cutout)

this enables the front end of my scope to be inserted all the way to the 1st sheet of perspex

I have marked the other piece of 300mm x 300mm 9mm mdf to accept 4 x led lights as i thought this would give a better overall illumination. this will be mounted in the very top of the light box approximately 200mm from the 1st piece of perspex. This was fixed again with hot melt glue to the mdf 300mm strips.

i will add some more pictures of how i fit the lights etc but its a light box for £20 which in my book is not to be sniffed at

and i got to do a lot of inserting while doing it :shock: :shock:

[steppenwolf]

Excellent project, I am going to watch this with interest as flats really are a PITA!

[centroid]

A nice project/design Steve, and well constructed too.

Like Steve (steppenwolf), I'll also follow your progress with interest.

Dave

[Plastic chicken]

Looks brilliant, my order is on the way

PC