I do not use a light box, although if I do watch photography as a sourse of income, I may give in and get one for speed...
Anyway, I prefer to use a mix of light sources, and control direction and intensity very closely, so a light box may actually hinder me more than help me.
On the EL shoot for example, I used three types of light (one of which was candle light) to get things to look 'right' to me.
In the light boxes, the subject tends to look 'sterile' and 'fake' where as with natural (and other types of) light, and good control, you can get a very good representation of what things look like in real life- we don't usually spend our lives with our hands in a light box (unless you are a hand model!).
So, I just 'wing it' as you say; however it's never quite that simple...:cursing: