I’m looking for any possible info about building an UV oven for curing boards. Size and position of the tubes (what kind of tubes work best, BTW?), best building methods, you get the picture…
Planning to maybe have one in my new shop. Drawings, photos and the like very welcome.
Thanks a lot to all those who might help!!!
real easy built one a few years ago and real handy to have around the workshop
11’ box made of 2by2" boarded out and foil glued on all inside panels to reflect the uv
bought 4’ double strip lights and you just replace the starter with ones you get to match the bulbs from a tanning supplies store.
left a 6" gap between the lights and mounted them dead centre to the inside of the box
have seen them with side lights too to cure the laps all in one but i do a lot of cut laps so i prefer to set off the one side and then flip, cut and cure the laps
you can also make smaller one if you don’t plan on making longer boards using lizard lamps.
Have you spoken to UWL?
Howzit balsa, Boxes are nice but not necessary, my UV curing set up was just a set of racks and UV lights that I could raise or lower over the board. Didn't need lights for the rails since the UV refracts and rails kick as the rest of the board does. I used 2 4ft dble fixtures on each side and had strings attached at the tail and nose so I could pull the ends together for maximum lighting in those areas. The one thing about UV lights is you should turn them on about 10 minutes before putting the board under them, this is reccomended by the light makers. The boards would kick after about 5 minutes under the lights. Not as fast as the sun but still works just fine.Aloha,Kokua
Hey Kokua…I hear varying reports about the safety of being exposed to the lights. Woolybear was doing a ton of repair with a handheld blacklight but started using a cardboard shield attached to it…or so I was told. But I’m not certain about if the lights screw up your retina or some regular exposure results in some horrible unforseen affliction. We had a light box at Beatty’s but it was always closed when the lights when on. It didn’t hold a candle to the sun.
I dig using UV resin for the quick cure…I wish I’d had it back in the days I had a near monopoly on repairs in SB (80’s). Still, we did alright as it was.
Safety?Let’s hear from someone in the know.
Howzit DS, Funny you should bring this up, I always thought that the lights would just give me a tan or sunburn. I wouldn’t stay in the room the whole time just go in to check if the lam had kicked yet. The thing that gets me is people saying UV resin turns brown quicker than catalyzed resin but I think they were sniffing to much fumes.Aloha,Kokua
Got it…so blacklights and UV lights are the same?
Thanks everyone for your answers. As for safety, just like in UV tanning, I believe you should protect your eyes with those red glasses. Any authorized medical advice?
hey balsa
they have outlawed solariums here in q l d for under 18
lot a health warnings be carefull man
huie
You have to wear glasses to filter UVs or your retina will get damaged. Usually, any glasses can do because they all filter the worst rays (like the glasses you use if you have a bad sight). The other consequences could be skin cancer if you get long exposures, just like under the sun. Use glasses to protect the retinas, they are very sensitive!
I wouldn’t go near a UV light without glacier goggles, end up snowblind building surfboards!
http://www.uvex.us/products/lenschart.asp
has a chart with ratings of lenses.
Hey Balsa, i bough one of those Phillips Solariums:
Used, for 100,00 euros and it does the job!
I have it as it came, so i do the resin work and then put the solarium over the board, set the time and go for a beer (you don’t need to use sun glasses while drinking the beer, but it helps). Once you finish the beer, the board is ready for the next stage. I love UV resin!
I see…
Just one thing: at what time exactly do you pour the beer on the board? Don’t you get bubbles on the rails doing that?
Hola amigo,
Of course, you’re welcome to come up to the shop whenever you’d like to see our two systems and take photos/notes, whatever. We’ll throw in luch as well. Or I’d be happy to send you a picture or two if what we have is of interest.
The first is our ‘real’ oven, which is the one that used to be in Surfoam if you remember the unit. Aluminum over welded steel tube construction, six bulbs on top and six on the bottom, counterweighted hinged top with a pully for one-handed operation. There’s a timer, but I have to admit that it rarely gets used. This oven will handle boards up to 10’ in length, we never got around to modifying it for longer boards. As it seals really well, you don’t have to worry too much about escaping uv’s. Laminations are okay in about 7 minutes, hotcoats take about 12. I personally don’t use it for gloss, but you’d have to figure a bit more time to get it really hard.
The second is a tanning bed similar to the one posted above. That was the fruit of my interesting day trip to Lourdes with Jérôme… which you can probably imagine. Picked it up from a kindly couple in a tiny village, who had bought it so that their kids could tan when down from their studies in Paris. She said that with a perfectly straight face as though everyone had one around for that reason. Anyway, for anything under 8’, this unit gets more use. Maybe just a touch faster, with 12 bulbs just for the top. The automatic raising/lowering is great, we just added darker skirts to the top to control stray rays. The tanning bulbs work well, and the cost of the entire unit was less expensive than replacing just the bulbs on the other.
As a side note, when you need bulbs, ask your local beautician where they order theirs, and piggy-bag on orders. Much cheaper than than any other source I’ve found here, and the girl running the local salon just might be impressed by an eloquent, seasoned shaper such as yourself…
Thanks Jeffrey. Another Lourdes miracle, eh?
In another life (that was more than twenty years ago), I owned a relaxation center and we had one of those. When the whole thing collapsed, I spent a lot of time selling what could be sold and I remember having one hell of a time selling that thing, eventually letting it go for peanuts…
If only I had known…