The box is constructed of balsa wood, basswood, foamcore board, and four 12" threaded
rods. The frame consists of four wooden squares, three of basswood and one of balsa,
shown lying horizontally at right. The two bottommost and topmost squares are
basswood, and the other is balsa. The basswood is much stronger, so I used that to
ensure rigidity where necessary, and used balsa for the rest. There are screws
and/or staples holding the square boxes together at the corners. The threaded rods
run vertically near each corner and hold the squares together. Spacers made of balsa
placed next to the threaded rods provide the open spaces in the frame. Currently
they are simply held in place by pressure coming from the nuts/washers on the threaded
rods. The white material is translucent plastic. There is another sheet of it
1/2" below the visible sheet, sandwiched between a balsa square and a basswood
square. The thinking is that the top sheet will diffuse most of the unevenness in
lighting, and the bottom sheet will take care of the rest.Note the dimmer switch for
on/off and to control brightness. At full-on, the lights are pretty dim, so this may
have been overkill.
Total weight of the box is 2.1 lbs. not including the weight of the cord. |
 |