It's been well over two years since I last posted here, and part of that reason is that I haven't had many projects to do. Coaching takes up a large part of my time, and when I'm not coaching, I'm usually thinking about it, and then I'm coaching again either through video review, note review, data review, etc.
Basically it's a lie that I have a life outside of coaching. I have brief pit stops outside of coaching.
This is one of those pitstops.
What is a lightbox? This is a lightbox. I think these have something to do with photography, and drawing. I know that you can use them to make it easier to trace a picture, and that they can backlight objects, but being neither photographer, or solid artist, I have no idea.
But I do like the idea of having a lightbox.
So I sort of built one. I played with the idea of gathering up the materials needed to make one from scratch, but I began running into a few hiccups.
First, the weather. It's been cold and rainy, which means working inside of the shop that I don't have with the power tools I own, but have no space to set up.
Second, the glass. I could find it, but that would mean finding the glass before building the box.
Third, as with many of my projects - the headboard - once I start a project, the chances that it gets finished if it's very involved vary, but usually they don't. The headboard is done, but once I realized the amount of time required to sand, and stain the entire piece, I quickly lost interest. And when I discovered that IKEA does have doors, and that modifying an existing door or window shutters was more cost effective and easier than building a door or window shutter, the project was canned.
So knowing my love of starting things, and love of leaving them when I move onto something else, I decided to take advantage of a ridiculous sale at Michaels and buy one of their large shadow boxes. Finished, hinged, with a removeable back, it was perfect.
The link I posted used paper to create the ghosted effect, but I decided I didn't want to buy tracing paper, so instead I opted for a can of frosted glass spray paint.
The final piece was finding LED light strips on Amazon. These things are amazing. They have an adhesive back, and you can cut them at various points. Just be sure to buy the set with the power adapter. I neglected to do this, so a three day project took a week as I had to order the adapters. I opted for two just incase I decided to get creative again.
Step 1: I removed the lid with the glass from the box, and taped off the top edge. I didn't tape along the inner frame where it met the glass. That was time consuming, and I didn't care if there was overspray on that part.
Step 2: I cleaned the glass of fingerprints, before applying my first three coats. I made the mistake of taking advantage of a brief sunny moment outside to apply these coats, and when I went back inside, several small insects had decided to land on the fresh paint. I had to carefully remove those.
Step 3: I applied several more coats to the surface. I was ok with erring on the side of it being too thick because I was using LEDs which would send off plenty of light.
Step 4: I reattached the lid to the box, then removed the backboard to locate the LEDs.
Step 5: Honestly the LEDs gave me a few moments of pause. The original LED lights came with zero instructions, and a bunch of random adapters, and cords. Thankfully the power cord boxes provided instructions, and after a quick read through, I applied the LEDs in a single strip around the box, just inside where the backboard mounted. I considered leaving the backboard off, but opted to instead cut a small notch in the side to run the power cord.
Step 6: Plug in, and done.
What am I going to use this lightbox for? I haven't decided yet, but I do like it. The link I used suggested making a sign for it. I think that isn't a bad idea, but it's not one that I'm likely to follow.
If you have the tools, and the space, then I'd suggest making this from scratch. I prefer the spray paint idea better than the tracing paper, but that's my opinion. I do like the idea of using the shadowboxes from Michaels simply because it cuts down on a few steps, the hinge means you can store items in the box when it's not in use, and because I hate painting and the box is already painted. It's up to you. I bought the frame at a 70 percent off sale and saved a bundle.
