I’ve been lurking on swaylocks for a few years now, mostly just reading and learning. Its pretty amazing the amount of information that we have at our fingertips here! Anyway, after a few years of not having a permanent place to shape and glass boards, I’ve finally moved into a shop that I can call home in a friends detached garage. Its a pretty small set up, but i shape mostly short boards anyway so it works fine for me.
the shaping room and a few boards im working on
6’1 round tail and a 5’7 diamond tail (lost rocket inspired)
the future uv box (hopefully)
My main questions are about the glassing room and some options for a UV light box. The way the shop is set up it would be difficult to pick up the boards after lam and bring them out into direct sunlight. Basically what I’ve been trying to figure out is how i can rig up a light box that will be as cost and energy efficient as possible.
I’ve looked into the resources and forum here, but i cant seem to get an exact answer. Can i purchase a fluorescent fixture from walmart or something and put bulbs in that will emit a usable amount of UV (as long as the watts of the bulbs and ballasts matched) to cure a board? Or do i need to get the bulbs, ballasts, sockets and wiring separately to build my set up?
Any comments or advice feel free to throw it out there!
Awesome set-up. For what its worth I bought a 4’ flourescent fixture from home despot for about $20. It included the ballast. Then i grabbed a few extension cords and wired them up, plugged into a surge protector for a handy light switch and it’s all good. Bulbs will cost a bit and depending on how many lights, you could have it up and running for around $100.
You might want to throw in a piece of any kind of board to put a ceiling in there. Else you might have little roof chunks falling in your gloss coat, or worse leaking rain crud. I was using a friend’s garage with a big apartment toverhead. There is a big old rusted pipe right over the middle of the workspace, and it leaked occasionally on my boards. Turd stains in my awesome resin tint lam job
"Basically what I've been trying to figure out is how i can rig up a light box that will be as cost and energy efficient as possible."
Would your buddy let you make a skylight out of a sliding glass door in the roof of the garage? Line the walls with reflective mylar and you're in the game.
Don’t have answer for your UV bulbs & lightbox question, but are you pretty decent at lam/hotcoating with UV?
If so, & if you don’t already, I’d advise to start using catalyst with your UV resin. Enough catalyst to make it kick after a while but still enough time to do your stuff. Have a sun cure drying rack set up outside nearby. When the cat sets up/gels the resin, no worries about the resin moving, then just carefully walk it out to your rack in the sunlight and bam! with direct sunlight full cure in minutes. Smell is gone, ready to sand and no sticky uncured resin drips on the floor plus way faster than lightbox
I’ve thought about the skylight idea (I think there was talk about that in an older post) but I don’t think that would fly with my friend. Also, because of the fact that its been 25 deg F here the past few weeks, I’m a little concerned about the amount of heat I’d lose. the garage doesn’t keep in much heat to begin with.
Thats another reason why I’m not too keen on bringing the boards in and out. I like the idea of adding catalyst and waiting for it to set up, but Idon’t want to lose all the heat in the shop every time I open the door. Great tip though- I will most likely use that in the summer when temperature is not as much of a concern.
Hang20, this seems like what i was thinking. Have you had any issues with the bulbs or ballasts not being compatible with one another? Also, did you happen to have a link or manufacturer of the bulbs your using. I’ve been looking at getting bulbs through a tanning supplier, but they only have bulbs in the 72" range and they are 100w so i figured they would fry a ballast on one of those fixtures pretty quick.
Howzit roz, I bought my fixtures from Wal-Mart and the UV bulbs from Fiberglass Hi. The fixtures wer $ 10 for a double and the bulbs were about $18 a piece. What you might consider is having 2 sets of lights over your glassing racks, flouriles for glassing and then turn them off and turn on the UV's that are hanging next to the flourecents.. Me I just set up a second set of racks in the next room and had 4 fixtures with 8 bulbs to kick off the resin. Aloha,Kokua
I am in New Jersey as well. Just a heads up.....Keep an eye on craigslist. Off and on for the past few months there has been a listing for used SunCure Tubes. The seller is a boardbuilder out of Woodbine, NJ. The listing is not there today but I would keep checking it.
NICE setup! Great questions about UV curing, I hope you get some more good responses because you saved me from asking the same questions! I have glassed 5 boards in my garage here in Jerz and after dealing with resin curing too fast and also too slow I am ready to try the UV route on the next one. Temperatures here have been my biggest enemy, controlling the temps in my garage are really difficult because it's attached and if I don't have the exhaust fan going the smell permeates into the house. Welcome to Sways, by the way are you in South or North Jersey?
Thanks everyone for the great tips and information. I think what ill do is try the walmart fixtures out. Worst case scenario i blow those and have to buy new ballasts. Regardless, ill post pictures and a review when I’m done and let you guys know how it works out.
Ill definitely keep an eye on craigslist for those bulbs. Picking them up would be ideal because shipping on those is pretty pricey.
Im actually living up in Newport, RI now, but Im from right by Asbury Park. I make it down as often as possible to get some good beach break.
If you can pick up the SunCure tube that's the best solution. You'd have to check to see if it fits your space. The tube is a complete rig with fixtures in place. Put the board in, close the lid, hit the switch.
If you make your own rig be sure you get ''surround'' light for optimum results.
Check out surfsource.net second homepage. They have alot of UV info and pictures of portable roll around UV setups.. They sell fixtues and UV bulbs. They also have a simple drawing for a do-it-yourself box with a diagram of how to best lay out your fixtures for optimal effect. I have bought UV bulbs at Home Depot previously. HD also sells a foil lined foam insulation that can be used to line your box. If you line the box with this type of foil insulation you can also use the box to cure Epoxy. I used one for a couple of years like the one you are thinking of building. I built it like a coffin laying on it's side, with the door swinging down. I sat it on two sawhorses. I built a dowel storage rack above it. I could put in a board, cook it and then put it conviently above the box in storage. I could then move another blank out of the rack down into the box. I could do two or three lammed or hotcoated blanks in sucession this way. Lam up three blanks on my glassing racks and then move them over to storage above the box. Then move them in and out of the box one at a time storing them above the box. In the meantime I would have my three glassing racks open for three more lams. Because I was using UV I could interupt my glassing anytime it was necessary for me to rotate a blank out of the box and onto the storage rack etc. Was a good production setup. I don't understand why more people don't use UV, especially in frigid climes. Also IMO a stronger Poly glass job and less toxic. Lowel
