Hello people.
I thought I'd post a thread showing the UV cure lamp I bought. It's the first time I've used this type of glue.
It won't be news to many people but if you were like me and were a bit unsure of the process, have a look at this vid and you can see it at work.
http://youtu.be/Q9NzDQ_3ftU
I knew about it for a while but thought it was expensive and difficult to get the UV lamps and adhesive but it's not too bad.
You can do it very expensively or very cheaply, I chose about in the middle. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had success using the cheap UV cure lamps that are sold on ebay very cheaply and are used for curing acrylic nails.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-UV-GE...2c11730&_uhb=1
There was some useful info in the threads below that inspired me to have a go at it.
http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...hlight=norland
http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...=cure+adhesive
http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...=cure+adhesive
Also here are some links to help you find the gear I used.
http://www.edmundoptics.com/lab-prod...ing-lamps/3513
(You might want to clarify with Edmunds if you buy it from them as the one i received was different to the one pictured in their online catalogue)
I actually like the one I got better. I bought a re-certified one from them which was a bit cheaper so maybe that's why it was different.
https://www.norlandprod.com/adhesiveindex2.html#ls
If you are in the US, you can buy the Norland series of UV cure adhesives directly from them online and it is about half what I paid. If you buy more it goes down a lot more too.
I positioned the lamp around 80mm (3") above the parts to be glued. The drop I applied was quiet a bit too much. I would have bought the glue in the 6ml syringe pack but edmunds didn't stock it. This would have made the application much more precise. Next time I'll apply the drop to a toothpick or something similar first.
In the vid I let it pre-cure for over two mins but it probably didn't need that much, especially if you apply the right amount of glue.
You can see the lamp in the pic bellow. It just looks like a pretty standard black light tube. the filter isn't applied to the tubes surface though. The filter is glued into a removable panel in front of the tube and is made from 3mm dark purple glass.
Feel free to chime in with tips and ideas.
Good luck
Kit