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

A ring to rule them all ! This is one of the best LED arch currently available !

This is a very good lighting LED arch for fine work like such as handicraft, jewellery, electronic work, miniature painting and other.
Several things differenciate this arch vs the others.

Easy storage and portability

Contrary to most design, this arch is designed to be portable and quickly assembled/disassembled for transport, or for storage when not in use. This is a huge advantage of this design because this kind of thing is big, and when you don't need it, it's very cumbersome (the arch has a 500mm radius). First, The large arch is seperated in two halves (so two arch member & two LED strips). Each half arch is made of 5 smaller pieces glued togheter with cyanocrylate. And the large arch can be assembled from its two member with a union piece and sets of M4 x 12mm screw in less than a minute. At the center there is an electrical connector for quick connect/disconnect of the two halves.
Second, the half arch can also be disassembled from their bases, also with a single M4 x 12mm screw each side.

From storage to full assembly in a few minutes ! (only three screw to install, and two electrical connector to plug).
However if you don't plan to disassemble it, you can skip the electrical connectors at the center of the arch and at the base and make permanent electrical connections, and replace all screws by cyanocrylate glue.

LED Strips

The arch's slot for the LED strip isn't made for regular 10mm wide LED strip like most LED arch, but for the 15mm wide high density (480 LED/meter) LED strip (double width 2835 LED strip). This LED strip has a pattern of 6 LEDS, 2 SMD resistors and 2 soldering pads, that repeats every 12.5mm. With the diameter of the arch that's a total 720 LEDs. That's good lighting ! Electrical wires should be inserted in their holes at the top of the arch prior glueing the LED strip to the arch. LED strip should be glued from the top of the arch where the wires are, and then going downward till the end of the strip. See images on how & where to glue the LED strip.

Mechanics, strenght & looks

I designed the arch to be about a meter wide and have an oval cross section of 30mm x 40mm. I used an oval cross section rather than a round one because it looks much cooler (more futuristic and a bit organic) and it gives a more stylized result. The arch cross section is 2.4mm thick, so it prints exactly at 6 layers (with a 0.4mm nozzle) and offers enough strength without being too bulky. The bases also have 2.4mm walls with a 2.0mm thick top and bottom.

Electrical

One of the base has an electrical box that features for a 10x15mm SPST rocker switch and a DC barrel power jack. This box is closed with a cover hold by a M3 x 8mm screw in a brass insert. A pair of 5.5 X 2.5mm (one male + one female) connector are also needed at the center of the arch for the quick assembly/disassembly feature. These high density LED strips requires a lot of power. They pull 2.8A at 12v. So I recommend a good 12V-3A power supply (or a cheap 12V-5A, minimally one that can withstand a true 12V @ 3A, be aware, most LED power supply are over-estimated 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 liking.

Weight

The best way to make this stable is to have as much weight as possible in the bases (this needs to be heavy).
Some design use wheel balancing weight or nuts to increase weight of the base, but this is a pain (expensive, availability of the different size depending where you live (imperial/metric) just to name a few cons). I taught about adding threaded rod (heavier and cheaper than nuts) and also pouring concrete in it but what's the cheapest and most effective way to add weight ? Think of a punching bag... Sand !

I made the bases so that each of their legs could be filled with sand. The bases are hollowed and their cavity top are angled at 30deg so they should be print without support (assuming your printer is good with 30deg overhang and your slicer support threshold is set to 30deg). The added weight provided by the sand is around 230gr (0.5 lb) per base. You may want to use a funnel to keep threads clean when filling sand. Cavities are closed with caps that have external grip, finger tip grip and coins grip. You should be able to thread the cap by hand, but you can also use a coin (no pliers) in the cap slot to engage the thread in the base.

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 2 strips of 360LEDS (60 pattern of 6 LEDs) for a total of 750mm long, if you have junctions in it, this adds 2-3mm per junction)
1x 12v-5A power supply
1x 12v-6A LED dimmer (optionnal)
1x SPST rocker switch (15mm x 10mm)
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 center arch to union diassembly)
1x male 5.5mm X 2.5mm + 1x female 5.5mm X 2.5mm (optionnal for base to arch diassembly)
4x M4 hex nuts
4x M4 X 12mm screw (in this case I used round cap screw, but head cap or even Philips M4 screw will do)
1x M3x8mm screw + brass insert for the electrical box cover (you may use a small wood screw)
4x 6inch of # 20 electrical wire pair
Cyanocrylate (super glue) to fix the arch's pieces togheter
Hot glue, one drop on each wires to fix them in the arch holes (optionnal)
Set of 8 black anti slip silicone foot pads (optionnal)
1 lb of sand

If you want to skip the switch & connector, you can print two regular base (without the electrical stuff) and drill your own holes for direct wiring.

Note I made another LED light design based on the same elliptical arch section which isn't a full half circle as this one, but made only from the upper section with adjustable height elbows and a flat top with straight feet (instead of 90deg angled feet) and requires no tools for dissambly as it features handles (instead of screws).
See here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6900510 for details.

You can find C-clamp base for it here : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7087512

I also made a new improved version.
See https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7357542