Large height-adjustable LED light for miniature painting, crafts, electronic work, jewelry and other fine work

This is one of the best LED lights currently available.
It serves as an excellent lighting arch for detailed tasks such as handicrafts, jewelry making, electronic work, miniature painting, and more.
Several features differentiate this arch from others on the market.

Easy storage and portability

Unlike most designs, this arch is built for portability and can be quickly assembled or disassembled for transport or storage when not in use. This is a significant advantage because traditional designs can be bulky and cumbersome when not needed.
The large arch consists of three sections on each side (left/right) and a straight flat section in the middle. Each side is completed with an elbow piece that can slide up or down on the bases to adjust the height. All components are glued together with cyanoacrylate. The arch can be quickly assembled or disassembled from its bases using a collar and handle, secured with M4 x 30mm bolts and nuts. The same handles are used for height adjustment.
Transitioning from storage to full assembly takes less than 30 seconds!

LED Strips

The arch's slot for the LED strip is not designed for standard 10mm wide LED strips like most other arches; instead, it accommodates a 15mm wide high-density (480 LEDs/meter) LED strip (double-width 2835 LED strip). This LED strip features a pattern of six LEDs, two SMD resistors, and two soldering pads that repeat every 12.5mm. With the length of the arch, that totals 522 LEDs—providing excellent lighting!

Mechanics, strenght, looks

I designed the arch to be about one meter wide with an oval cross-section measuring 30mm x 40mm. I chose an oval cross-section over a round one because it looks much cooler (more futuristic and slightly organic) and yields a more stylized appearance. The cross-section of the arch is 2.4mm thick, allowing it to print exactly at six bead (with a 0.4mm nozzle) while providing sufficient strength without being overly bulky. The bases also feature 2.4mm thick walls with top and bottom sections measuring 2.0mm thick.

Electrical

One of the bases includes an electrical box equipped with an SPST switch and a DC barrel power jack. This box is secured with a cover held by an M3 x 8mm screw in a brass insert. These high-density LED strips require substantial power, drawing 1.8A at 12V. Therefore, I recommend using a reliable 12V-2A power supply (or a budget-friendly 12V-3A supply), ensuring it can handle true 12V at 2A—be cautious, as many LED power supplies are often overestimated by vendors. As an option, you can add a 12V 6A LED dimmer along the power supply cable to adjust the lighting intensity to your preference. Feel free to ask if you need any further modifications or additional information!

Power Supply and LED Dimmer Amazon references : TBD
LED Strip, switch, jack, AliExpress references : TBD

Weight

The best way to ensure stability is to add as much weight as possible to the bases (they need to be heavy). Some designs use wheel balancing weights or nuts to increase the weight of the base, but this can be cumbersome (expensive, with varying availability of different sizes depending on whether you live in an imperial or metric system, just to name a few drawbacks). I considered adding threaded rods (which are heavier and cheaper than nuts) and even pouring concrete into them, but what’s the cheapest and most effective way to add weight? Think of a punching bag... sand!

I designed the bases so that each foot can be filled with sand. The bases are hollowed out, and the top of their cavities is angled at 30 degrees, allowing them to be printed without support (assuming your printer handles 30-degree overhangs well and your slicer’s support threshold is set to 30 degrees). The added weight from the sand is approximately 3/8 lb per base. You may want to use a funnel to keep the threads clean while filling with sand. The cavities are sealed with caps that feature external grips, fingertip grips, and coin grips. You should be able to screw the cap on by hand, but you can also use a coin (no pliers) in the cap slot to help engage the threads in the base. Let me know if you need any further adjustments or additional information!

List of material required :

1kg of PLA filament (you could consider using PETG-CF for more longevity)
High density (480LED/m) 2835 LED strip, 15mm wide, Cut 1 strips of 522 LEDS (87 pattern of 6 LEDs)
1x 12v-3A power supply
1x 12v-6A LED dimmer (optionnal)
1x SPST switch (15mm x 8.7mm)
1x 5.5 X 2.5mm DC barrel jack
1x male 5.5mm X 2.5mm + 1x female 5.5mm X 2.5mm (optionnal for base to arch diassembly)
2x M4 hex nuts
2x M4 x 30mm screw
1x M3 x 8mm screw + brass insert for the electrical box cover (you may use a small wood screw)
16 inch of # 20 electrical wire pair
Cyanocrylate (super glue) to fix the arch's pieces togheter
Set of 8 black anti slip silicone foot pads (optionnal)
3/4 lb of sand

Note I made another LED light design based on the same elliptical arch but arrange in full half circle (no flat on top) and with angled feet instead of straight feet and no height adjustment.
See https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6900397 for more details