Lithophane Frame, using Ikea MOGNAG LED tealights...

thingiverse

I experimented with creating some nice small lithophanes using some small square images from my Facebook albums. I settled on 60x60mm as a convenient size, and the example above was one of my early great successes. One problem was that I didn't have a convenient way to display them. So, I sat down with OpenSCAD this weekend and tinkered together a small frame + holder. I had some Ikea "MOGNAG" LED tealights, which have a roughly 38mm base size and are nice: they have a warm white color, and flicker rather convincingly. They aren't super bright, but when positioned a short distance behind the lithophane they provide pretty nice illumination for the 60x60mm size. So, I tinkered together a simple base, with a frame with an inner bevel at the front and a post in the back to support the tealight. I printed the mount using Hatchbox Wood PLA filament, which is kind of nice for these decorative objects. It's not my absolute favorite filament to work with, because I have more problems with adhesion and stringing than I do with most filaments, but I was successful by using a little hair spray directly on glass, and the strings are easy to trim with an X-acto knife. For the lithophane, I used Cura to create a 60x60mm lithophane, with 0.8mm base and a 5mm thickness. It was printed with 100% infill using 3D Solutech white PLA and a 0.2mm layer height. The frame will probably accommodate a thicker lithophane, but this thickness seems appropriate. The frame has a 1.5mm lip to hold the lithophane in place. If you want, you could easily put a small dab of hot glue in the corner to hold it in place.