Create a Light Box From a Broken Monitor

In an effort to enhance my lighting situation, I took a broken desktop monitor and repurposed it into a light box. Granted, some brands of light box are quite cheap but I had all the materials on hand already from other projects and felt like making one myself. It is sometimes more satisfying that way, isn't it?!

Broken computer monitor or flat screen

screwdriver

pry bar

LED strip lighting

soldering iron, flux, solder

Scissors

Extra wiring (optional)

hot glue

rotary tool (optional)

Using a screw driving set/pry bar, take the housing off. Depending on your of screen, this may be easy or really difficult since some manufacturers use security screws or hard to reach plastic clips.

I used a cup to keep all of my screws safe from falling off the work bench, especially since some are so tiny. A magnetic pan would also work and probably be more appropriate if you can get your hands on one.

I used a plastic pry bar (I cannot remember where I procured this tool in pic 1) to work my way around the case to separate the plastic pieces. A lay down mat or cloth would probably be a good idea, too. This way you don't scratch your monitor screen. Be extremely careful if you have to pry the plastic tabs apart because you don't want to risk breaking the monitor.

Once the outer case is off, you can focus on the inner screen. In my case, the associated circuit boards can be removed as they are unnecessary and likely broken. Use caution (as seen in the picture) since some of the components (capacitors) may still pack a jolt of electricity. My monitor was stored away for months and I felt comfortable handling it.

AGAIN: Take precautions!!

NOTE: Some scrappers may pay for the gold layers on the boards but if you don't want to deal with that, some big box stores will take electronic waste (aka E-waste).

Side [hustle] NOTE: If you have collected loads of gold fingers, circuit board connections, and whatnot, you can ship them to a processing facility for cold, hard, stinky cash, but you need a lot and they don't pay for shipping so take that for what it's worth.

My screen has several shiny layers which are the key components for the diffusion of light. I used gloves when handling these so I would not leave any fingerprints.

NOTE: In hindsight, my shop wasn't the best choice for disassembly since "floaties" may attract themselves on the layers.

I am not sure what all the layers do besides filter, polarization, and diffusion but you'll likely want to note the orientation and queue of them. If your light looks odd when you're done, you may have messed up the order. I usually will take a video of any disassembly process so that I have something to fall back on when (not IF) I forget.

I removed the old light source and get the screen ready to accept the LED strip. They look like teeny tiny fluorescent lights like you see in an office. I am not sure if they can be repurposed but let me know in the comments if you found a good use for these, and also, how to test them!

I didn't want my LED strip to be one continuous loop around the outside of the housing so I worked it around the top and bottom, similar to where the original light tracks were fitted. The LED strip comes with joints that you can cut and re-solder as you see fit. This may or may not be necessary depending on your monitor or where exactly you want your LEDs to go. My soldering skill needed some more experience points and this project was good for my own personal skill building. Some LED strips come with a sticky backing which both helped and got in the way of installation. At times I laid a bead of hot glue down to keep my LED/wires from moving out of position so that I could proceed.

I had get my wiring and LEDs to sit exactly where I wanted them so I used a rotary tool to carve away any unwanted plastic from the housing. This was most pertinent for the wiring for the power adapter.

Once things are in place, test them prior to reassembly. You wouldn't want to reassemble, fire it up, and realize your solder joint came loose or you pinched a wire out of position!

The reassembly process is just the reverse and quite easy since you would likely just have to snap any plastic tabs back in place.

Check out my problem solving process from my scrappy DIY'ing.

Now that things are reassembled, I flipped the switch on and worked on reducing shadows (Don't pay attention to the massive shading in my cover photo. That was me being silly :D

You can see from pic 1 to 2 that the lighting really helps reduce unwanted shadows.

This mainly helps me make videos and taking better photos. In particular, closeup shots for re-selling items on interweb market sites.

Give this a shot if you have materials lying around. This is also a nice repurposing project to keep stuff out of the trash.

I have also seen videos of folks who will wire up four similar screens and create their own housing to mimic a "window" in a windowless room. Installing a variable power supply can make the "sun" shine brighter or dim the area, which I thought was neat especially in winter time when the sun is lacking (especially where I currently live).

Thanks for sticking with me to the end and I will catch you on another project soon!