Lithophane Lightbox (Parametric) by compman2

Last crawled date: 3 years, 4 months ago

I created this because I needed a way to display lithophanes I created. This solution creates a shallow lightbox that houses the lithophane with a face frame to hold it in place.
This is quite customizable and included the ability to make a lightbox and face frame with a slot so you can change the lithophane being displayed. I used four strips of stick on LED's to light my light box with a 12V 1A power adapter that I salved from a broken piece of IT gear. This lights up the lithophane really well.
This really needs to be manipulated in OpenSCad as just using customizer does not
leverage all the options. There are a number of logical flags that can't be set in customizer. They are listed below;
generate_box = true; // true generates box false skips generating the box
generate_face_frame = true; // true generates lid, false skips generating the lid
generate_lip = true; // create inside lip to rest lithophane on
cord_access_hole = true; // create hole for cord in back of box
cord_strain_relief = true; // create bar with holes to wire tie cords inside of box near hole
face_frame_inner_bevel= true; // put bevel on inner face frame
top_slot = false; // create slot in box and frame to allow changing of lithophane
There are a number of things to take note of when configuring your lithophane viewer
1) The face_frame_overhang controls the tilt of the whole unit when displaying. If you want the unit to have a slight upturn to make viewing easier. I use 5-10mm which gives a slight upturn.
2) inside_length and inside_width should be the actual length and width of your lithophane and I would add 1mm to each dimension so that they fit easily.
3) face_frame_tolerence is a value that makes the face frame print over the lightbox. When printing on my printer I have found that .2mm gives a really tight fit which takes some effort to remove. Any less tolerance than.2mm would probably not fit over the lightbox without damage. I have also printer with .4mm which fits nicely but is not a friction fit and would need some help from an adhesive (hot melt glue, super glue) to stay in place.
4) box_lip_angle to print the lightbox without supports inside this angle should be at least 50 degrees and for some 60 degrees. Shallower angles than this will require support.
5) Generating a bevel on the inside of the face frame is optional but adds a nice touch to the face frame. If using a face frame inside bevel you need to use at least 50 degrees to print without supports.
// User defined variables
// All dimensions are in mm
generate_box = true; // true generates box false skips generating the box
generate_face_frame = true; // true generates lid, false skips generating the lid
generate_lip = true; // create inside lip to rest lithophane on
cord_access_hole = true; // create hole for cord in back of box
cord_strain_relief = true; // create bar with holes to wire tie cords inside of box near hole
face_frame_inner_bevel= true; // put bevel on inner face frame
top_slot = false; // create slot in box and frame to allow changing of lithophane
inside_width = 101; // this should be the width of your lithophane plus some tolerance I add 1mm
inside_length = 151; // this should be the length of your lithophane plus some tolerance I add 1mm
inside_height = 50; // Depth of box inside (excluding wall thickness)
wall_thickness = 3; //Wall thickness
radius = 2; //Fillet radius in milimeters. Cannot be larger than wall thickness
lithophane_border = 7; //if no border you need at least 2mm of overhange to support lithophane. Used to compute the width of lip in lightbox
lithophane_thickness = 7; //Thickness of widest part of lithophane if using a border it will be the border thickness
box_lip_angle = 60; //When 3d printing angles of at least 50 degrees are necessary to print without support
box_lip_depth =8; //How far down in the box is the lip to support lithophane. Can be different than thickness of lithophane
cord_hole_diameter = 5; //Diameter of hole for electrical cord
cord_hole_position = "right"; //Valid values "left" "right" "center"
strain_relief_length = 20;
// Face frame parameters
face_frame_thickness = 8; //Total thickness of face frame
face_frame_pocket_depth = 5; //Inset in bottom of face frame that goes over lightbox
face_frame_inner_bevel_angle = 60; //If you want a bevel on the inner side of face frame to make it more decorative. Angle greater than 50 for 3d printing
face_frame_overhang = 5; //The amount of face frame that will be outside of the light box. Also determines the angle the box will sit on a surface
face_frame_tolerance = .3; //Additional tolerance to make sure the face frame will fit over the light box after 3d printing. .2 or greater recommended