I was UV curing some adhesive today by the window for a couple hours and ran out of sunlight. Is there any other way to finish the job with things around the house? Flashlight, lamps, red laser? What bulbs around the house put out some UV?
Any UV radiation?
- Thread starter Bauer
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mattheww50
Flashlight Enthusiast
In general there are no lamps in a typical household with significant UV output. Fluorescents often have significant UV generation, but most of that energy is converted to visible light via the phosphors coating the tube. HID lighting also can generate substantial UV output, but few homes utilize HID lighting, and even then the fixtures are specifically designed not to transmit the UV energy outside the fixture. UV output is in general unhealthy for your eyes, so most domestic light sources have been specifically engineered to produce very little UV output or keep it inside the device. Your red laser will definitely not produce UV energy.
Al_D
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Not really. You'll get slightly better results from a blacklight (which isn't really UV right, but near UV) but, in my opinion isn't worth the effort).
You're better off buying an actual UV lamp. UV lamps and tubes are used in many applications, for consumers they're mainly used for water or HVAC treatment.
You can find portable UV sources at outdoor stores as water cleaners.
bshanahan14rulz
Flashlight Enthusiast
Do you have any way to put it outside? perhaps too much UV is being reflected by the vertical window. I don't think glass transmits UV all that great to begin with.
I've often cured Norland under a drinking glass outside to stop pollen ETC., whether it blocks some of the UV I'm not sure.
I know UV activated photo chromatic spectacles don't work well in the car because of the UV that is blocked.
Norm
I know UV activated photo chromatic spectacles don't work well in the car because of the UV that is blocked.
Norm
Fireclaw18
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How about a halogen desk lamp? Don't they radiate UV? Just remove the glass shield below the light bulb.
I read that glass cuts off 80% of the UV. I know it sounds like a lot, but try to get a sun tan from behind the window... However, the context was about sunburn, so they might not have had longwave UV in mind.
Halogen is too low power to have a significant amount of UV. It might *help* if you give it plenty of time, though...
TGWNN used his wife's UV nail polish curing thingy and sounds like it worked great.
Regular 375nm black lights should let some 365nm light out (it's only a 10nm difference) but I never checked how much.
Al_D
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It's not a whole lot getting through but it's a lot more than most especially if you're not able to get dental/medical UV sources.
I think most dental curing lights are blue light of about 400 and 500 nm, with a peak wavelength of about 460nm.
Norm
I'm fairly certain they use different wavelenghts depending on the product, but sure does sound like they don't use UV anymore. Kinda curious that my dentist turns her head like she was arc-welding, though.
On the flip side of the coin, it doesn't mean that the product won't cure if you use a light on a frequency that is a little off from what the manufacturer recommmends; it will certainly take longer to cure, but still could help quite a bit. Experimentation is the only real way to find out.
