Re: alternative to flourescent tubes.

Hi:

Sandy King had posted a message that someone is manufacturing a black
light blue (blb) compact flourescent tube - This is a flourescent tube
that screws into an incandescent light fixture.

See http://www.starmgc.com/blcklt.html

Item# F-60U Only $16.95 ea.

At this price it may be more expensive than using a standard straight bl
flourescent tube. It seems to be about the same cost as a four foot
flourescent bl tube.

I think the trick to making a UV printing with these tubes is setting up a
set sockets with the proper spacing to provide even lighting. I doubt
that anyone has tried this yet - This is a fairly new product.

I would look at the cost per unit area illuminated. I don't think these
would illuminate an area as large as a 4 ft flourescent tube.

But - if one was interested in testing a compact flourescent UV printer I
would try bolting four incandescent fixtures to a sheet of pegboard
(carefull with the wiring) The pegboard would allow you to easily change
the spacing of the fixtures - could use regular compact flourescent tubes
and a light meter to see if the illumination is even. Or use the compact
flourescnet blb tubes and do a bunch of test strips.

It might be cheaper to make a small UV printer with these compact
flourescent blb tubes. Smaller flourescent tubes and fixtures are often
more expensive that 4 ft tubes and fixtures.

Gord

On Mon, 30 May 2005, Barb wrote:

> The "corkscrew" shaped bulbs are low wattage meant for household use.
> However, there are high wattage "sunlamp" bulbs available. They can most
> easily be found on sites that deal with reptiles and terrariums. These are
> full spectrum, self-ballasted, mercury vapor, UV bulbs that screw into a
> regular incandescent fixture.
> b
>
> At 06:10 PM 5/30/2005, you wrote:
> >a member wrote about uv lights that had an
> >incandescent base, kind of a corkscrew shaped light.
> >does any one have details on building a lightbox with
> >the described fixtures? thanks
> >Patrick
> >
> >
> >
> >__________________________________
> >Do you Yahoo!?
> >Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new Resources site
> >http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/
>

---------------------------------------------------------
Gordon J. Holtslander Dept. of Biology
holtsg@duke.usask.ca 112 Science Place
http://duke.usask.ca/~holtsg University of Saskatchewan
Tel (306) 966-4433 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Fax (306) 966-4461 Canada S7N 5E2
---------------------------------------------------------
Received on Tue May 31 10:05:10 2005