$40 Laser Cut 12.7" Teleprompter
A lightweight, affordable and large format teleprompter using only laser cut materials and processes.
This is a project 4 and half years in the making. If you're interested in that journey, you can read about it here.
You can purchase the laser cutting pattern for Glowforge Proofgrade Medium thickness plywood here for $12.99 single, $24.99 unlimited, and currently free with premium subscription.
Goals
The goal was to create a lightweight, affordable and large format teleprompter with the following criteria:
| Original goals | Final product |
|---|---|
| 100% laser cut parts | 4 rubber bands and one 1/4-20 nut |
| One 12x20 plywood sheet | Additional sheet of black paper |
| No adhesives required | No adhesives required |
| Support large monitors | Supports up to 15.6" monitor |
| Support camera mounting | 1/4-20 tripod mounts & LWS rails |
| Tool-free assembly | Tool-free assembly |
| Optional beamsplitter | Supports PET sheet or beamsplitter glass |
| Sub $40 material cost | Sub $50 material cost |
During the years of development, a Chinese company Canalhout began selling low cost teleprompters and beamsplitter glass. They remain the best low cost source for high quality glass I've found. While my project is still less expensive and a bit more flexible, they deserve credit for lowering the barrier to entry of teleprompters by 50-75%.
The bill of materials
Minimum BOM $18.00 (not including shipping) - Plywood, rubber bands, paperboard, 0.020 sheet
Full BOM $62.25 (not including shipping) - Prefinished plywood, rubber bands, paperboard, beam-splitter glass, square nuts, and premium thumbscrews.
| Item | Price | Link to purchase |
|---|---|---|
| 1/8" (3mm) Plywood - Baltic Birch | $2.40 | Ocooch Hardwoods |
| 1/8" (3mm) Plywood - Baltic Birch | $2.50 | Makerstock |
| 1/8" (3mm) Plywood - Baltic Birch Prefinished | $5.25 | Laser Wood Supplies |
| 1/8" (3mm) Plywood - MDF-core Maple/Cherry/Walnut | $18.95 | Makerstock |
| 1/8" (3mm) Plywood - MDF-core Maple | $22.00 | Glowforge Direct |
| Assorted rubber bands | $6.50 | Amazon |
| 0.020 PET/PC/Acrylic Clear Sheet 8x10" | $8.00 | Amazon |
| Optional 8x10" / 256x206mm 70/30% Glass | $34.00 | AliExpress |
| >12x20" Black construction paper / paperboard | $1.00 | DollarTree (In-store only) |
| $0.99 | Hobby Lobby | |
| 1/4"-20 Square Nut | $1.25 | 2-pack Home Depot |
| Optional 1/4"-20 Thumbscrews and square nuts | $1.25 | 2-pack nuts Home Depot |
| $12.50 | 4-pack thumbscrews Amazon | |
| Optional Alt. 6mm Thumbscrews and square nuts | $3.75 | 5-pack thumbscrews AliExpress |
| $12.99 | 8-pack thumbscrews Amazon | |
| $4.00 | 10pack nuts AliExpress |
Pivot Options
45° Static Pivot
This is the default option for the kit. Loop two rubber bands together and loop through end of J-hook as shown. Use a small hook or flathead screwdriver to extend the rubber band through the other side and loop onto second J-hook.
This allows the unit to lock at 45° or to unlock and collapse down flat for storage or transport.
Variable thumbscrew pivot
This option uses any standard 1/4-20 screw and square nut and allows you to set whatever incident angle works best for your configuration.
Mounting options
Tripod mount with direct camera | separate tripod mounts | LWS Rail mount
Tripod mount with direct camera attachment
Separate tripod mounts
LWS 15mm x 60mm Rail Mount
Glass Options
PET Sheet
This is the default option. This unit is designed to fit a standard 8x10" (approx. 256mm x 206mm) sheet. Through a lot of experimentation, I found that 0.020" represents the best option. Thinner than this will result in significant distortion as the sheet flexes over such a large surface area. Thicker than this begins to see significant double-image artifacts due to reflection off of the back surface of the sheet.
These sheets are commonly found in inexpensive 8x10" photo frames as well.
A higher brightness tablet or display will help with contrast - most inexpensive portable monitors max out at 250-300 nits. This can be a bit dim for a brightly lit studio environment, but still usable for white-on-black text.
The Kindle Fire HD10 sports 400nits, and the iPad 500 nits, iPad Pro 12.9 600+ nits. Most Samsung tablets are also 400+ nits.
Beamsplitter Glass
Fortunately since this project began, a handful of Chinese factories have begun selling beamsplitter glass directly to consumers. The cost of an 8x10" sheet has come down from $140.00+ from US suppliers to ~$35.00 direct from the factory.
The quality on these is well worth the price if you find yourself using the teleprompter often, and makes it useful as a passthrough display for things like video conferencing with colleagues to maintain real eye contact with the camera.
Assembly Instructions
Assembly instructions are provided through Cadasio. Really solid service for providing interactive assembly instructions, especially important for projects like this that require a number of potentially complex steps.