I want to upgrade to a better exposure unit (flood light isn't cutting it anymore). I was researching and I can get a decent sized UV exposure unit for around $450 + ship. I also came across plans to build what looks like the exact same thing for around $100 in cost of materials (+ time). In your guys' opinions, is it worth it to try to build one that may or may not work out for $100? Or would it be better to invest in an already built unit for over 4x the amount.
from experience, the cheap way usualyl ends up the most expensive. go with quality first it will save you $ in the long run... but i digress,
i use 2 blacklights under a piece of glass for my exposures...so far so good. cost me $100 AU
Well, I guess that sort of contradicts itself. I do agree about the cheap way being the more expensive way in the long run for most things, but in theory this is just a box with lights in it. Do you use the kind of black lights that you buy in party stores? or the kind from hardware stores?
party stores, ie the ones that make glow in the dark stickers go nuts !!
i guess with this i cheaped out and it works so far,
but in hindsight the reason it's cost me so much more this way is,
purchasing of materials, doing entire screens myself, exposing, buying new printer testing, re testing, changing idea, testing again. by the time and $ i have spent so far it would have worked out better for me to have had the screen print place burn my image into a screen.
if you have any experience on electrical wiring, then building an exposure unit can be very cost effective and will produce the same results as many commercial units. However if you end up buying all the materials, and then fail to produce a working unit then you have just wasted a lot of money.
Make sure you buy fluorescent blacklight bulbs... you can find them at topbulb.com (link below, but beware my order from them took one month because the bulbs were backordered and then they forgot to ship, if you can find similar bulbs elsewhere use that option)
Topbulb did a similar thing to me. I needed 4 white blacklight bulbs and order 5, so I'd have an extra. They shipped 3 and put the other 2 on backorder for weeks.
Building a good unit yourself can provide an exposure unit that will suit you fine until you need to do more detail. Vacuum lid works way better than a compression lid, like my unit had. I recently got a HIX tt-180 table top unit and haven't had any screens not come out extremely well. With my homemade unit, perhaps a 4th of my screens didn't come out right, wasting my time and emulsion.
party stores, ie the ones that make glow in the dark stickers go nuts !!
i guess with this i cheaped out and it works so far,
but in hindsight the reason it's cost me so much more this way is,
purchasing of materials, doing entire screens myself, exposing, buying new printer testing, re testing, changing idea, testing again. by the time and $ i have spent so far it would have worked out better for me to have had the screen print place burn my image into a screen.
i'm getting set up to burn my first screens and was going to build my won exposure unit. I was planning on using a 500w home depot-type flood light but the black light idea also seems interesting. how does black light compare to flood lights? also, does anyone have a link to plans for a blacklight unit?
Is time precious to you? If your time is worth money, I would buy a pro. unit and save yourself trouble. Also think about if you wanted to sell your equipment later on, at least you will get some money back. Not many people are interested in buying home built equipment.
I built mine for probably 100 dollars if not cheaper, Lost a lot of time getting it to expose properly, but if you are slow and handy I would do it, I think I am exposing for 3 minutes now... not to bad for home made without a vaccum
Does anyone know where to get these BL Fluorescent bulbs in Canada. I looked at Home depot and all they had were the Hippie style purple ones. They did have some that were for growing plants and aquariums. I almost bought them thinking that they emit the proper amount of UV but just wanted to check to see if anyone knew if these were the right ones. Any ideas?
Exposure unit - build it or buy it? 
