Up To Speed Instantly = Light Table

jimzim75

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2006
Messages
808
Location
Canada
I have always wanted one of these things. Since it’s Christmas and I’ve actually got a couple of hours that I don’t feel guilty about not using to get further ahead on Jobs.
This years project is a light table. I thought some of you might be interested.

This is about how to get up to speed with design quickly. It will most benefit beginners the most, because if they’re not familiar with graphic programs, it can take a while.
It will also benefit the old engrave like me who have not quite mastered Flash and the Wacom graphire tablets they spent a bunch of money on. Like me.

This is an older form of aid for graphic illustration. You can use a light table to take a symmetrical hart of the size you want as the base. Then hand draw a variation of the image below on tracing paper. You can do these variations quite quickly. I find that
I can actually do these faster than a computer expert of graphics can generate them.
It is easy to get the new forms into the computer once you have hand drawn them. This includes all the shading, which can be frustrating if you can’t find the effect your looking for. Saving time is the Idea.

You can also train the right side of your brain to retain hand control. There is a thing called hand memory. You get it by doing a lot of drawing. You hand knows where to go.
Tracing is a exercise for this motor function. The table allows you to do this without going blind. Besides you do want some of your own drawing in your engraving don’t you? If you are going to knock off design, it’s better you knock off your own designs.

Once you have gotten onto the graphic programs, you can go in the computer, and then print. Do some more drawing by hand and then put it on the computer again. I like to enlarge parts and once they are finished size them down.

Until you have become a computer Guru, try a light table.

The Build
I try to go around my shop looking for parts to keep cost down. It so happened that I had everything I need for this project already at hand. I had an old light fixture form a sales display. The light box was an old bench pan from a pre made bench. I hated this bench pan for it original purpose. The glass came form an old case that I dismantled.
So it was basically free. I like free.

Vs. $150.00 for a Wacom tablet, $800.00 for Flash program, and another $100.00 for how to books, and no results after four months. There are guys out there that can get it up and running in a day. I’m just not one of them. I will get it, eventually………………………
 

Attachments

  • lighttable1a.jpg
    lighttable1a.jpg
    29.6 KB · Views: 636
  • lighttable2a.jpg
    lighttable2a.jpg
    26.7 KB · Views: 616
  • lighttable3a.jpg
    lighttable3a.jpg
    19.7 KB · Views: 561

Latest posts

Sponsors

Top