new print lightbox - construction starts

Initial thoughts were to construct primarily of 6 mm marine ply, as this would save considerable weight compared to a chipboard style of construction (which our previous lightbox used), this would be offset by the larger size of course, however after discussing a number of approaches, we decided that a space frame type construction, skinned with ply, would be a better option.

There are these nice parts in the USA, but trying to match inches with SWG wall thickness to metric threatened my sanity, apart from lead times and import problems, so I went with Easyfix from here

Here is the base unit built from 25 mm square tube using standard corner pieces. This weighs 3.8 kilos.

The top will be slightly lighter as it is not as deep. The light fittings are 0.7 kilos each.


I'm still waiting for more parts to arrive, but I have further refined the sketchup design and produced this animated video showing how the main parts pack away.