We are in the process of building a curing uv curing tube table etc. We have been curing with natural sunlight for about 20 boards. Works decent but we need to get it nailed. We have been trying to lay up the deck while the laps are still wet, and have had issued with air hugging the laps, Always trying to save time! We would like to build a hood over our lam racks so that we dont have to move the boards as much any suggestions?
I’ve been looking at this commercial set up and wondering if I could slice a few “Sono” Tubes (concrete molds) line them with foil and some UV bulbs and mount on some sort of rack??? It looks like the best bulbs are pretty expensive but fast. http://www.suncure.com/UVC2000usersguide.htm
The poor man’s source would be about three 175W guard lights hanging over your racks. You can buy them with bulbs for about $20 each at the local home supply store. Make sure the Mercury Vapor globes are clear, not white. You might need to put aluminum foil around the insides of the fixtures. The cheap makers don’t deal much with efficiently reflecting UV light. You’d be luckiest to get a 400W Mercury Vapor street light from… the local light company? They’re replacing MV fixtures with Sodium fixtures. But remove the refractor glass. It blocks UV. Street lights emit light in an oval pattern, mo betta for surfboards. MV fixtures are compact, modular, and easy to mount.
Noodle, how do Mercury Vapors perform compared to the tanning bulb flouros? Any appoximate times for set up? Do you use these also? As always, thanks for the info.>>> The poor man’s source would be about three 175W guard lights hanging over > your racks. You can buy them with bulbs for about $20 each at the local > home supply store. Make sure the Mercury Vapor globes are clear, not > white. You might need to put aluminum foil around the insides of the > fixtures. The cheap makers don’t deal much with efficiently reflecting UV > light.>>> You’d be luckiest to get a 400W Mercury Vapor street light from… the > local light company? They’re replacing MV fixtures with Sodium fixtures. > But remove the refractor glass. It blocks UV. Street lights emit light in > an oval pattern, mo betta for surfboards. MV fixtures are compact, > modular, and easy to mount.
Noodle, how do Mercury Vapors perform compared to the tanning bulb > flouros? Any appoximate times for set up? Do you use these also? As > always, thanks for the info. I’m recomending this from experience with MV spectra. Others have tried MV and say it works. However, you have to multiply cure times of tanning bulbs by about three for MV. Apparently MV doesn’t emit enough shorter wavelength UV light to keep up with the big boys. For us amateurs MV allows curing at night, keeps cures out of the trashy outside air, and avoids hazardous transport while the resin is wet. You should test MV before you spend the whole $60.