Originally Posted by
ZeroPoint
The Home Depot sells Rust-Oleum brand glow in the dark paint. They sell both a spray can and a small 7oz can of latex based paint. I used the latex paint. . .
Good advice, Zeropoint. For zinc sulfide, I've used about 60 cans of the Krylon spray paint. The stuff is cheap, but doesn't go on evenly and the fumes and dust are really bad. It also has a slight green tint to it which is unsightly and unnecessary.
For the long lasting strontium aluminate, I use GlowInc's Smooth green V10 water-based paint and apply it with an air sprayer over a bright white base coat and was careful to apply an even, thick coat. Two quarts of the stuff covers an 8 foot by 4 foot space for $300. (Pro-tip, register and wait for a sale as they do up to 50% off a couple times a year.)
Initially, I tried their solvent based regular V10 paint and applied it to temporary panels as a proof-of-concept. I initially tried to apply it with an air sprayer and that did not work at all as the particles were too large and got left in the can. I eventually brushed the stuff on and although that worked, it was not an even coat and even if it were, the particles are so large that drawings using 405nm look rough. This was a painful $400 loss although the panels are portable for LEM demonstrations. I also applied zinc sulfide on the back of the panels for further testing/demos.
Here are the two examples re-posted in other threads for comparison.
This is the rough panel stuff trial (showing both the regular large grained V10 strontium aluminate stuff and zinc sulfide):
While this is the room with the much better smooth strontium aluminate (on the back bar wall) while the rest of the room is the zinc sulfide Krylon spray paint:
Oh, one additional advantage of the smooth (smaller particles) of strontium aluminate versus the larger ones is a shorter charge time and quicker discharge time. Unless you want to see your drawing for hours after, you'll appreciate something that pretty much discharges within 20 minutes.
-David
"Help, help, I'm being repressed!"