. . . the ballasts which come with shop light
fixtures and the under-counter fixtures I mentioned in the original post
are pretty cheap gadgets that are designed to be throwaway. In spite of
this, in 6 years of printing, only one ballast of many has ever fried on
me. And, no, Judy, I haven't blown up my place...yet.
. . . I meant taping together several single-bulb
units. The 15 watt under-counter fixtures I described have a small plastic
housing (see Palladio catalog) which when taped side to side make a nice
tight bulb-to-bulb distance. The housing also extends a little distance
beyond the surface of the bulb so that you can simply place your print
frame right on the housing and it is a good print-to-bulb distance. Its all
so damned easy; just buy a few of the 15W under counter fixtures, swap the
supplied flourescent bulb for a 15W Super Actinic, tape a few together and
you're done. I can usually find the units for $7-$9 apiece; the UV bulbs
cost $12-15 apiece so for $100 at most I've got a printer which can expose
two 4x5's at once with respectable exposure times. No Walmart or KMart and
you live in America?? Try a large lumber supply store, prefereably some
national chain.
Hope that clears it up.
Bill