I need to read all your posts... So far they have all stimulated a Hey moment... like

• Hey - that's really cool 
• Hey - that's not so difficult
• Hey - I need to make that

I made my own lightbox for taking pictures of my jewelry.

You can see it here 

I found that the lights were just too hot and made my camera cycle thru red/blue/and green filters too much .  It has worked very well for me in macro mode with a cheap Nikon.  However I still use photoshop to bump up the brightness and contrast a tad. (and get rid of any lint)