Many people are cutting fantastic lithophanes using
PhotoVCarve that look stunning when held to the light, but then struggle to find a suitable method of back-lighting them.
PhotoVCarve customer Jeff E. has been researching this subject and came up with an excellent low cost way of back-lighting using Cold Cathode Lights. These are basically very small fluorescent tubes that have been used by computer nerds to light the inside of computer cases. They are small - less than 1/2" in diameter, come in various lengths (4 - 12 inches) and are inexpensive -- about 8 dollars for a pair of them which includes the inverter needed to drive them and generate almost no heat. Below are a couple of picture showing the tube and a litho that is back lit back by 2 12" tubes. Do an Internet search for cold cathode - you will find many suppliers.
Jeff has also written an excellent tutorial explaining how to build low cost and low energy / heat light boxes and this PDF can be downloaded from the Vectric Forum.
How to Build Litho Cold Cathode Lighting,Very useful information - Thanks Jeff.
Tony
Machsupport Forum
