UV Lightbox using Barrina Halloween Party Lights

This lightbox has worked great for me since I started cyanotype a few years ago, and I continue to use it for not only cyanotype, but salt prints as well as collodio chloride prints. If the lights are approximately 2” above the workpiece, exposure times for me are around 8 - 12 minutes.

UV Lights
Amazon: Barrina UV LED Blacklight Bar
https://www.amazon.com/Barrina-Blacklight-Integrated-Fixture-Atmosphere/dp/B071NT6189?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1

There are 2 ft long, and 4 ft long versions. I mount them approximately 2"- 2.5” apart, and suspend them 2-3" over the print surface.

Same lights directly from Barrina:
https://barrina-led.com/products/barrina-t5-9w-uv-led-blacklight-bar-2ft-halloween-decorations-christmas-party

I used some PVC boards that I happened to have on hand. The length of the box is approximately 28” long, and width is about 24”. The boards on the edges are 1×6’s, which in real life are 3/4” thick and 5.5” wide.

The Barrina lights link together with included wires that you can see in the photo above. The lights come with a switch (you can see the wire leading off in the upper left of the photo above) and the switch wire has the electrical plug on the end of it (not pictured). This allows you to turn all of the lights off and on with one switch. Or, you can add a timer, which will make your life easier. I went without a timer for a long time, but once I got a timer I could multi task without having to be there to turn off the lights when the exposure time was up.

The lights come with little metal clips that you screw down to your board, and then the lights just snap in place, two clips per light.

The lights come in “sets” of four (~$38) and I used two sets for eight lights total.

You can move your print frame closer to the lights if you like, this will give shorter exposure times. I HAVE NOT had any problems with lines from uneven exposure if I got the print frame too close to the light, but a friend has. Proceed at you own risk :-)

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