LED UV Light Box: Build Your Own for Under $150

[malexand]

I separated my LED strips by the same distance as between each LED on the strip - about 1cm if i recall. I'm sure a math person could tell me reasons why this is not the best, but it gives me a very even light. No spotting or banding that i can detect. They are about 3 inches above the glass of my print frame. Like baking cookies, i rotate the print 1/2 way through for even browning.

[Mike in NY]

I built my UV box this week with a useable interior surface area of 19" x 26". Here are the parts that I used, along with their dimensions and some assembly notes (everything other than the lights were purchased from Home Depot).

Lights: Barrina UV LED Blacklight Bar, 9W 2ft, T5 Integrated Bulbs (from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I ordered two sets of four bars each, and ended up using six of them.

Base and lid of box: cut from two 2' x 4' sheets of smooth birch plywood

Four sides of box: cut from one 6' long 1"x8" premium pine board, clear of knots.

Hinge: Everbuilt brand continuous hinge 1.5" x 48" cut to length with my Dremel, but a hacksaw could also be used

Sheet metal screws for attaching hinge to lid: one package of pan head Phillips screws #10 x 2"

Machine screws and nuts for attaching hinge to box body: 12 screws with locking nuts were already on-hand in my shop

Wood screws for assembling sides and base to each other: 16 2" wood screws were already on-hand

Chain and 2 screw eyes for tilting lid back: hardware already on-hand

Electrical staples for attaching wires to lid: already on-hand

Power and hand tools used: table saw, miter saw, Dremel tool with metal cut-off wheel, drill and regular bits, countersink bit for wood screws, forstner bit for drilling out hole for wire to pass through, Phillips screw driver, socket wrench for tightening locking nuts, drywall square, ruler, pliers, sandpaper for smoothing board edges.

As stated above, the base of the box has a useable interior surface area of 19" x 26". The board dimensions are as follows:

Base: 27.5" x 20.5"
Lid : 29.5" x 21.5" (the lid extends 1" over the sides and front to make it easy to open it without adding handle hardware)
Sides: 19" x 7.5"
Front and back: 27.5" x 7.5"

Assembly Notes:

(1) The sides are attached to the "inside" area (i.e., to the flat surface) of the base, not to the "outside" 3/4" edges of the base. This means the distance between the base and lid within the box is 7.5".

(2) I placed 6 bulb bars 2.5" from one another, measured from side to side (NOT measured from center point to center point of the bars' placements). I placed my bulbs an inch closer to each other than Tim Layton did, but I also chose to make the sides of my box 2 inches higher than Tim's box. I will experiment to determine if there is any need to change the distance between the bulbs in case of any banding (which I don't expect based on Tim's placement of 3.5" between the bars). I can also place risers below my print frames to lessen their distance to the UV bulbs to adjust exposure times as I wish for different processes.

(3) The machine screws and locking nuts used to attach the lid hinge to the base of the box could be substituted with shallow 3/4" wood screws if desired (especially if the chain is installed to prevent the heavy lid from falling all the way backwards, potentially yanking the hinge away from the box), but I prefer the extra stability. Depending on where the furthest left and right holes on the hinge line up on the base of the box, you may need to use wood screws as you may not be able to use locking nuts at the far edges.

[Tin Can]

Nice Mike

A member here is using that exact design to make and offer prints from 1k to 5K

[Mike in NY]

Wow, that's nice to know. I just sketched my plan for the box out on a sheet of paper, knowing what the maximum size of my prints would be (plus a little bit of wiggle room for my hands inside the box). But I'm comfortable designing stuff from scratch, although I paid careful attention to Tim's notes on the bulbs. Originally I was going to place a handle on the lid, but then I realized that wasn't necessary if I just made the lid a little wider than the body of the box - and it would be easier to manage anyway. The idea for the lid chain came after I made the box. At first I installed a moveable bracket that took a little fiddling with, but then I thought of the chain and switched to that.

The kallitypes I've made with the UV boxes at the Penumbra Foundation's Center for Alt Photography in NYC are pretty good. Now that I have my own UV box, I ordered my first batch of Platinum/Palladium chemicals from B&S this week. I'm eager to use them with 8x10 negs I shoot in camera, and larger digital negs I print from my Epson 3880. I just hope my P/P prints will be as acceptable as my woodworking skills.

[Tin Can]

Go watch Tim's latest video today, 'Wild Horses'

I also put a lip on front, I will add a chain (good idea) soon but my lid stops when tilted onto the Elwood