Cure Crazy

[3dLuke]

First off, just a respect to all the support monitors and users on this forum. I've learned so much and have read up on some great discussions that have made my user experience with the solus a great one. It's been bumpy at times but I've always been able to find the answers quickly through you guys. So felt I should contribute and share my personal experience with something that has given me good results.

I went a little crazy on this set up but it seems to produce some nice results. I've spent some time on the forum and it seems that Curing is a common theme. I know their are some heating techniques to cure the resin but It just seems for me personally the UV curing is just more user friendly. After some investigating It seems that most curable resins cure at a 365 to 405 nm wavelength. Per recommendation to purchase a simple nail dryer off Amazon I've taken it a few steps further.

Below is a few photos of the setup. Some of you may think its crazy but it really seems to work very well. I've been seeing a very nice result in castings and even after a hour the resin's are extremely hard and ridged.

All items I've purchased cheap off of amazon.

Step 1: I've taken 2 of the nail dryer's and stood them up on their ends and faced each other.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NPW16QW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Step 2: I placed everything on a laptop cooling tray because I noticed when I stood the Nail dryers up on their ends they ran a little too hot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J18006K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Step 3: A rotating solor powered display stand. Mainly because it looks cool when it spins.....that is all.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AW372ZG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and most importantly a light upgrade.

Step 4: I upgraded the light bulbs in the nail dryers. These LEDs seem to produce a more intense and better spectrum of UV light. I've switched out only 2 of the bulbs in each of the nail dryers leaving a total of 4 led and 4 florescence bulbs. Hoping that I get a full spectrum of 365nm to 405nm.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BVBUCS6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Step 5: To rap things up I plugged everything into a generic Electric timer so I can set it for a few hours and walk away.


So yes maybe a little overkill but it seems to be a big improvement for me. Plus if you add it all up its penny's compared to some of the professional boxes. And it just looks cool.

[mongerdesigns]

Hi Luke,

That is a crazy setup, but whatever works right?

One note of warning though. Those led upgrade bulbs need to be used with caution. I got them for my old UV nail curing unit, and they caused it to combust into flames in about 5 minutes of running them. Not sure if there were faulty or what, or just not designed for these units, or because I switched out all 4 and it overloaded it somehow.

[3dLuke]

Thanks for the heads up. Bursting into flames is not good

!	Message from: 3dLuke

. I have noticed that they do get Hot. I'll keep an eye out for anything bad. You never know what your going to get when you start ordering stuff off of Amazon.

[rkundla]

Those LED lamps are trying to take high voltage AC from the original CFLs to low voltage DC. The voltage converters are probably giving off a ton of waste heat in the process.

Add the fact that these lamps are probably made to run for no more than two minutes at a shot in a nail salon and that tells you everything you need to know. Forced air cooling would be mandatory, more than a laptop cooler can probably provide.

[jeweltool]

You have to match the power supply to the LED lights.

LED lights will always take as many watts/amps as they have available.

That is why you have to order a 50 watt LED power supply for 50 watts worth of lights.

Fluorescent light power supplies will usually not work with LED lights.

You will let the magic smoke out of the LEDs.

[mongerdesigns]

According to the specs those LEDs are 9w just like the cfls. I think it's somethings else.

[jeweltool]

LED power supplies are a bit more complicated compared to fluorescent ballasts.

They limit power output.

Hook any LED to just a plain DC power source and watch them pop(or catch fire) sucking up all the available watts/amps.

[Kerstien]

Does anyone know how often you need to change the uv lights as the power of the uv starts decreasing?

[rkundla]

I'd imagine it is different for each brand and the only method is by observation of UV behavior. Once it takes twice as long as fresh bulbs to cure the resin, I'd replace them.

Some might say it is a few thousand hours, but each time you power it up and shut it down, the cathode/anodes burn up a little each time the lamp fires up shortening its life.

[Kerstien]

Thanks for your help, because a nail technitian told me that they just last 30hr and it looked weird