My Frankenstein UV box.....

[therecordingart]

I'm really broke and wanted to build a light box to expose PCB's. The only thing I could find was an Ikea coffee table that my girlfriend bought a few years ago, and she didn't want it. So...me being the ghetto fool that I am....I took 4 of my 2' flourescent blacklights and mounted them about 6 inches apart under the table. The tubes are about 13 inches from the ground. What I'm thinking is that I'll use the top of the table for etching/developing and put my PCB's under the table to expose.

In theory it sounds cool, but should I make the legs shorter? These are 20 watt blacklight bulbs that I've been using about 6 inches above the boards. I thinking that the light will "spread" better being further from the ground, but what do I know....I'm new.

Do you guys think this will work? I mean you can techincally expose a PCB in direct sunlight so I'm thinking I'll be ok. I'd try it out, but I'm waiting for my sodium hydroxide substitute....I'm hating sodium hydroxide so I'm trying to find a place to order that Seno stuff here in the U.S.

 

[yan_b]

it will probably work both ways, but with different timing
but unless you have problems with your current setup (6" i mean) stick with it.

 

[Scenaria]

another way you could do it

get an old flatbed scanner

heck you can find em thrown away!

and easliy fit some tubes in there..

they have a paded lid

small and compact

 

[CJ]

Now that's what I call ghetto.
Dumpster divin for a UV table.
:razz:

 

[mr coffee]

Hi Scenaria

Creative idea. :thumb:

Do you know if the bed on scanners actually passes UV light? I haven't checked, but the ones I have seen look a lot like plain glass, which IIRC, doesn't pass UV very well.

If it does pass UV, it'd be a little more work than the coffee table mod, but it'd be a lot more compact, and you wouldn't need an exposure frame. Just line it up like a copier.

 

[Svart]

hey a real easy and cheap way i did it was get a UV light fixture from a fish tank and gut it. grab an 8" section of PVC tube a little longer than the UV tube and cut it in half. cut some wood to fit in the end and get some shiny aluminum foil and glue it to the inside of the half-tube. install the UV tube in the prepared pipe and stick a handle on top of it.

works like a charm. erases EEproms too!

:thumb:

 

[BYacey]

I made mine from the bottom stage assembly of an overhead projector, and used the existing quartz iodine bulb for the UV source. These bulbs are rich enough in UV that I can expose a board in about 6 minutes. The glass , if it is a UV hinderance, doesn't seem apparent. It might be my imagination, but the incandescent light source seems to yield sharper edges on the exposed traces than what a flourescent tube offers.