Penn State Stained Glass
Here's a neat Penn State stained glass piece my father-in-law crafted. These pieces are usually hung in windows, but I wanted the piece for my window-less gameroom. So I made a light box to display the glass.
The project started with this stained glass piece measuring about 14" x 10½".
I'm not much of a woodworker, but I had an old router that I never used, so I dug that out, grabbed a scrap piece of ¾" plywood and got to work...
Here's the front of my plywood box. I faced it with thin strips of mitered trim. All the front edges were clean and sharp so I left them as is. But the side edges were a bit rough, so I hit them with a 3⁄8" round over bit in the router.
Here's the back. I routed rabbet joints to assemble the boards and then I routed a rabbet around the whole inside back perimeter to accept a rear access panel. Note how the front trim forms an inside lip to hold the glass. Next I massaged the whole box with spot putty and a sanding block.
I cut a rear panel from ¼" plywood. I used some spray adhesive to attach reflective aluminum foil to the inside of the cover.
I installed the glass from the back and fixed it in place with dabs of silicon caulk.
I backed up the glass with a sheet of that plastic that's used to diffuse florescent ceiling lights. Without diffusion, the light bulb would be plainly visible through the glass. Unfortunately, the diffusion pattern is plainly visible through the glass, but it seemed the lesser of two evils. I used a hacksaw to narrow down a plastic bulb socket. I installed the socket along with a line cord including a built-in switch. I also added some rubber feet to the bottom of the box. Ultimately, I decided to use a 25 watt incandescent bulb.
Rear panel installed. Note the vent holes for the light bulb.
The finished project. The aluminum foil was well worth while. It helped illuminate the perimeter of the glass, which relatively reduced the hot spot caused by the bulb. Unfortunately, my crappy camera still exaggerates the hot spot.