Show me your UV sources!

Ecoleica

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May 22, 2008
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Dunedin
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35mm
Hey all, im thinking about making a uv source for gumoil printing. I was wondering if you would show me your designs so i can get some design ideas for my future one!

Cheers
 

Peter Spangenberg

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Dec 5, 2005
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Chagrin Fall
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With the printing industry going digital, you might find a plate burner to be a cheaper and better option. I debated making a light source and ultimately decided a Nuarc 26-1k would be better for a few reasons:
Cost: If you look around you can find them in good/excellent condition in the $200-$400 range
Dodging/Burning: Because the light source is well above the image, it is very easy to do dodging and burning. This is far more difficult in the small self contained units.
Vacuum Easel: This provides excellent registration and saved me the expense of buying a contact printing frame. In fact, the cost of a good CPF nearly pays for the machine. The size of the vacuum mat is 22"x26" and there's probably a useable protion of nearly the full size.
Replacement Parts: Still avaliable new and used.
The only downside is it's not really portable.
Just a suggestion-Peter
 

JBrunner

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I also use a NuArc 26 1K, similar to, but not as up to date as the units offered by Amergraph:

http://www.amergraph.com/products/pages/ULF-28.aspx

The vacuum easel is the bomb, as is the integrator. Perfect repeatable exposures, every time.

When I get some ahead, I'll update to the Amergraph.
 

Peter Spangenberg

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How could I forget the light integrator! With all of the other variables, it's nice to know the amount of light hitting the paper isn't one of them.
 

John Jarosz

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May 17, 2006
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Fairfax Iowa
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My UV lamp is a watercooled mercury arc (1000 watts) placed about 30 inches from the vacuum print frame. It's a surplus lightsource from a picture tube factory. This pic shows the print frame (made from hardrock maple) for 8x20. I have another frame that's 14x17 out of aluminum. .
 

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phritz phantom

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i use an old siemens sunlamp i found in my parent's basement. looks like this:


i probably should get an upgrade, but it works. fine for me up to 30x40cm (haven't tried anything larger yet).
exposure for 24x30cm gumprints at 30cm distance is around 6minutes.
 

Whiteymorange

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I took a course at a local museum in printmaking and copied the design of the small portable box they use. It's a "facial tanning lamp" available on Ebay for about $25, mounted to so as to have the bulbs about 5 inches away from the surface on which it is placed. A sheet of plate glass, a timer and away you go. The current times for me, using K73 plates for gravure printing is about 40 seconds with the positive and another 40-60 seconds with a stochastic screen. Light, simple and cheap. I'm limited in size - pretty much to the dimensions of the tanning unit at this point (10 by 12?) but that's all I really need. Replacement bulbs are readily available and the unit comes all wired and ready. Plug and play, as they say.
 

TheFlyingCamera

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Mine is five blacklight fixtures from Home Depot screwed to the underside of a shelf in an IKEA shelving unit (IVAR, the deep one, not the bookshelf sized one). They all plug into a power strip which I then connect to a Gra-Lab digital timer. Total cost, including the shelving unit, was about $200. With this setup I can do up to 12x20 or 14x17. I probably could do 16x20 but I've never tried as I don't have anything that big. The lights are about 2" from the surface of the glass of my contact printing frame.
 

SadowskiPL

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Jun 25, 2008
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Poland, a Os
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35mm RF
Yesterday I buy two T8/G13 18Watt UV lamps (32,7zł one ), for my ExBox.
That be ok for 18x25cm - 30x40cm prints , Gum & Cyanotype ?
Now I must buy, transformer etc...
 

Monophoto

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Mine is six spiral BLBs on 2ix-inch centers. The box itself is MDF, with a plywood top. Flap front door, small exhaust fan. I have a switch to turn the lamps/fan on and off, and my practice is to leave it on for the entire printing session - the warmup time of fluorescent bulbs is a consideration if you use a timer to control exposures by switching the lamps on and off, so I just use a kitchen timer to measure how long a print has been 'in the oven'.


The box itself takes up a lot of counter space, but it makes a great base for the dry mount press.
 

nworth

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Aug 27, 2005
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Los Alamos,
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I have eight 20 watt lamps (F20T12BL) in 2 lamp strip light fixtures mounted in a home made frame. The lamps are about six inches above the printing surface. It only took one evening to put it together.
 

Davec101

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Jul 29, 2005
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Cambridge, U
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My uv source consists of 9x18w Black Light Blue UV tubes fitted on the bottom of an home made mdf table, the vaccum frame below was taken from a Parker plate maker (20x16") Only made it 3 weeks ago, at the moment i am very pleased with it, exposure times for all alt processes i use range from 4-5 mins.
 

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Colin Graham

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Sep 5, 2004
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Pizza oven with vacuum frame drawer. More details here, towards the bottom of the page.
 
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Chazzy

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South Bend,
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Colin Graham said:
Pizza oven with vacuum frame drawer. More details here, towards the bottom of the page.
Click to expand...

I read the whole page, and I'm really impressed. I'm a total klutz about building things. But I think I would actually have to see that vacuum frame to understand what makes it work.
 

Colin Graham

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It is one of those things that's simple to make but very hard to describe, unfortunately...And I'm not sure how well it would work for POP processes- no way I can see to check the exposure without disturbing the registration. I still use a splitback frame for those.
 

John W

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Jul 18, 2008
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Seattle, WA
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I got a Nuarc Fliptop plateburner (FT26MH) off of the local Craigslist... for the mighty cost of hauling it away. Similar to the 26-1K units mentioned earlier, except that the Flip-top models are fully enclosed. The top (which flips over, hence the name) is the vacuum table, the lamp is inside the unit on the bottom.
 
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