IKEA frame spacer for Lithophane by casedog21

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is an adapter for this ikea frame.
This is a modified version of this.http://www.instructables.com/id/Photo-Frame-Lithophane-Backlight/
Parts and supplies needed.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075K2HV1G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X9S9T2L/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RMY8SME/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
High temp glue gun (important)
Solder and Iron
Rubbing Alcohol
scotch tape
1 paper towel/napkin
1 piece of white paper
knife or razor blade
3x5 printed lithophane - (RCLideOn guide to create lithophane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y63sVpeViXo&t=)
Take all of the stuff out of the ikea frame.
Take the plastic off plexiglass.
Reinsert it into the frame, put the paper border in the frame if you want it in there.
Insert the lithophane (bumpy side down) and bend the metal tabs down onto the lithophane.
Hold it up to the light to make sure you have it in the right way.
Print the adapter, You may want to scale it up a little if you want a more snug fit. Else it will work as is. There will be a small gap but it gives you room to insert it once the hot glue is on it. Test fit the adapter first to make sure it will go in on top of the lithophane.
Take the LED strip and pull out enough to go around the inside of the adapter with a little overlap. Clean end of the LED strip if it has plastic coating on it. Get a spare piece of wire about an inch long from something laying around and tin the ends. Solder on the two wires to the LED strip. Take note which one is positive and which one is negative. Plug the power adapter into the socket that comes with it. Put the tinned positive wire in the red part of the connector and the tinned negative wire into the black. Plug it into the wall to test that it lit up.
Unplug from the wall once you are sure it is good. Leave the adapter plugged into strip so you can gauge your spacing to start laying the led strip into frame adapter. Heat up your hot glue gun now and set it to the side. Have enough glue sticks available to go around the entire outer edge of the frame adapter.
Lay the socket into the frame adapter so there is enough room for the power supply plug. That will be your starting point for your LED strips and take note. Take the paper towel and use rubbing alcohol and wipe off the inner edge of the frame adapter. The alcohol cleans any oils from your hands or anything else to insure that the strip sticks to it and wont come off.
Peel the backing off of the LED strip and from the outside edge start laying in the strip. See pictures. The last side of the strip you want to start crossing back over to the inside edge. So there will be some overlap by the time you get back to the point where you started. This gives a little more light at the bottom. Score a cross pattern on the bottom of the socket for the LED and do the same on the part of the frame adapter where it will sit on the frame. This makes the hotglue bind better between plastics. Put a decent amount of hotglue on the socket and stick it down to the inner frame with the power adapter plugged into it. Make sure that the adapter is sitting where it wont hit the backing plate when you put it on. Hold it in place until it cools enough that you can let go of the socket.
Plug the adapter back into the wall to make sure that nothing got disconnected during previous work. Unplug once you are sure it is working.
Grab the frame with the lithophane in it and double check the orientation. You will want the plug to sit at the bottom of the lithophane. So test fit the Frame adapter into the frame.
Move quickly for this part because you want to glue to not cool off too much. Once you are aware of the orientation of the part get your hotglue gun and squeeze out a bead of glue on the side that will be glued on to the back of lithophane. Then immediately / carefully drop the inner frame in and center it.
At this point you should be ready to put the back on the frame. Take the white piece of paper and rough cut it a little bit smaller than the backing plate. Put two pieces of tape on it and tape it down to the side facing the lithophane. This serves as a reflector/diffuser and makes the light shining through the lithophane brighter.
Lay the backing plate onto the frame. Make a small loop in the power cord so it it can come out of the frame straight down. Cut a little slit into the backing plate for the cord to come out and test fit it until you are happy with it. (moving quickly again) Once happy run a heavy'ish bead of hotglue around the edge of the frame adapter and stick the backing plate on with the cable aligned in the notch you made. Keep pressure on it until you are sure the glue has cooled enough to make a good tight bond.
Plug in and enjoy!
-Casey