UV EXPOSURE UNIT ON A BUDGET

I am starting this blog for anyone that wants to get into glass engraving using the sandblasting method. Hopefully I will cover other forms of glass engraving but will concentrate mainly on sandblasting/sandcarving.
When I started I was out of work and on a very tight budget so a lot of my gear  was home built. With that in mind this post is of one of my first builds. All in I think it cost me less than £30.00.

This project is for anyone that would like to get in to using photo resist films but find the cost of the exposure units prohibitive. I dont have all the photos but this should give you a fairly good idea as to what to do.

First you need an old style scanner one about 3" deep. 

Strip out the insides so you have an empty shell then cut a piece of mirror to fit on the bottom of the inside.

Then you need one of these 

A 36w UV nail dryer i went for the cheapest i could find on ebay. strip it down so that all you have is the inner workings (keep the screws they may come in handy later)

mount the uv tube holders on the side casing of the scanner

i used one of the holders to mark where i wanted them to go then drilled and screwed them on but glue would work just as well

i tried to cut as few wires as possible but when mounting the switches it was inevitable
first i cut holes for the switches ( before pic not shown ) then mounted them

the timer switch ( the square one in the pic) had five wires coming from it all white so i used diferent coloured markers to identify them before cutting them and mounting the switch they were then re soldered

a glue gun was used to mount the mirror and to secure the main pcb into place
the wires for the lamps were made longer to reach the main board then secured into place

a quick check to make sure all wires are insulated then close up and suture ready for a test drive

the timer is for two mins and i find it takes about four both for rapid mask and the hd but a few snap tests on a couple of strips will give you a better idea, Not tried it with washout yet but it should work fine.

i hope you all will find this useful.

Bert.