Lighting Clear Cutting Mat?

[briankb]

Has anyone heard of or actually setup a light under their clear cutting mat?

We have a 4x8 clear 1/4" or so cutting mat with opaque measuring grid from SpeedPress and it's great. And I'm willing to remove the grid as it's never really be needed or used. So it would just be plywood with the clear cutting mat on top.

But it would help a lot if we had a little back lighting on the table to help weeding vinyl.

My initial thoughts would be to look at the material used for the older LCD screens. But there may be better ideas for this that doesn't involve cutting our parts of the plywood... I doubt edge lighting would travel very far in the cutting mat.

Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dsmskyline]

Any option using your existing table would add some extra height to it.

Build a small braced box a little larger than the top (49x97) about 4-5" high, place a couple 3' shop lights in the box, put a sheet of milk plex on top and put your cutting mat on that. Essentially its just a 4x8 light box.

 

[briankb]

What is milk plex? Is it available at HD or Lowes or only via sign suppliers?

 

[EricRamse]

What is milk plex? Is it available at HD or Lowes or only via sign suppliers?

white plexiglass. try a glass shop.

 

[briankb]

white plexi sounds like a good option

instead of adding to the height I may just route out a smaller section and mount a smaller light source and add the full sheet of white plexi anyway.

thanks for the advice!

 

[Locals Find!]

I would suggest using LED rope lights for your lighting source. They use less power, produce way less heat and you can bend them to just about any shape you want giving you consistent even lighting with minimum depth needed to house them giving you a lot more flexibility. Also, you wont have the hassle of having to change bulbs out.

 

[briankb]

I like that even better. Where is a good place to get it? I think HD and Lowes has rope lighting.

 

[Ken]

If using the plexi make sure it is translucent. LED rope lighting sounds like a good approach. Cheers to THAT!
Ken

 

[Locals Find!]

I bought some off E-bay cheap. I know you can find wholesale suppliers all over for it. You might be able to get it at lowes or HD just make sure its LED rope and not incandescent rope. Big difference. Also, wear gloves when touching it. All rope lights contain high concentrations of led in the casings. Just FYI.