BUILDING YOUR OWN UV BOX FOR BLANK SEALING

 

 

So, here we are, in the middle of the cold water period.  There isn't too much open water left and the water that is open is hit or miss in terms of success rates.  Usually around this time of year, I fill my down time with various projects, including painting crankbait blanks.  

Normally, it is color combinations I haven't seen before, or trying to replicate proven patterns.  Lately however, I've been shifting my attention to natural patterns in part to try and tempt fish that have seen everything off the shelf from the local big box stores.

All of this is all well and good, but eventually, when I am done painting them, the unenviable job of sealing them comes to the fore.  The only thing worse than that is actually putting the split rings and hooks on them.

Years ago, I used to use concrete sealant, but that was a very stinky job, with noxious fumes and it stunk up the garage and the house.  Not to mention, it probably posed several fire hazards and skunked out the tackle box for weeks.

Enter a product called AlumiUV.  Its a UV resin, when applied to baits and exposed to UV wavelengths of 365nm or better, hardens into an almost indestructible coating that protects my paint jobs and makes the blank water tight.

One of the biggest issues with this product is making a UV box that will adequately cure your bait once you hang them in it.  Below you'll see a picture of this ugly first guerilla build with some baits hanging in it for good measure.

As you can see, the box is hardly adequate for the number of baits I typically seal at one time. 

A new box is definitely in order and I thought, why not show everyone how easy it is to actually build one of these boxes using materials I already had on hand, or something someone could get pretty easily. 

So I decided to use an old cupboard I had tucked away in the basement that wasn't seeing any use.  It was doubtful if it would see any use as my wife totally hated the color I stained it, so there's that lol.

Now, the lights I have are good lights.  Not optimal but they can cure a bait hard as a rock within 8-20 minutes of direct exposure, which is plenty of time for me.  

But those two lights in an old cupboard were not going to get the job done in this big of an area.  Too much open area to adequately cure baits over a large area. Thus, I needed two more lights minimum.  Preferably bar lights  or at least two more of the same type I currently have.  

After doing some thinking, I opted for buying two more of the same type I had.  Two lights, each pushing 385-400 nm UV wavelengths.   They were the same strength I had in the old box.  The optimal wavelength is 365 nm but the prices are a bit outrageous in my estimation.  

The manufacturer of my old lights was out of stock so I had to do some digging to find some that were comparable.  Finally, after about an hour of searching I found some I thought would work as well.  So I ordered them late last weekend and they arrived Friday. 

Only a bit different in terms of size and light arrangement, but still the same wattage and working light angles. They ran about 50 bucks for 2 of them if I remember right. 

(If you look closer, you can see a bunch of other items I planned on using for this project.)

And now for the box. 

I mentioned I had an old cupboard I planned on using. I dug it out of the basement nook it was hiding it and dusted it off.  It was a cheap storage cabinet from Menards that ran me roughly 40 bucks back when I bought it.

Roughly 30 inches long x 12 inches wide x 12 deep.  Plenty of room for curing baits, provided I could get the UV light brackets installed in there.

This provided plenty of potential and also left room to expand into some future directions, if the needs arose.  

I needed to remove the door to get adequately started on this project.  Grabbed my electric drill, and proceeded to take the screws out of the hinges and set the door off to the side.

Next I needed to drill out the holes that would serve to hold the 3/8" 3' dowel I had.  The dowel would be the stable surface I hang the coated baits from to dry via large paper clips.

I used a 3/8" bit and just drilled where I had marked the holes a week earlier.  That mark was centered  width wise, but located 2" down from what would be the "new" top of the box.

This height allowed for the curing of larger baits, up to 6".

For bigger baits, like the 10-12 Grandma blanks I occasionally paint, I will have to put in some hooks beneath the dowel holes, remove the dowel, and then tip upright to get the height I need.  

It was at this point, I knew I had to drill the hole where I would be running the electrical cords out of once I mounted the UV lights inside. 

I knew I was going to be running the cords along side the box on the outside and plug them into a power strip mounted towards the rear of the box,  so I opted for a more centrally located hole.  I used a 1 1/2 inch drill bit  to create the hole to run the power cords through. 

I also took the lights off their brackets and placed the brackets inside the cabinet, marked out the bracket holes for the bolts and drilled them out.

After I had finished with all the drilling, I took a small hand held vacuum and cleaned up all the sawdust out of and around the box.

Beings I have already built a UV box before, I knew I wanted to do some things differently with this one. 

First on the agenda was using aluminum foil and keeping it affixed to the sides without the use of duct tape.

So I opted for some adhesive spray from Elmers.

It worked perfectly and allowed me the flexibility to smooth out most of the wrinkles and reposition the foil until it was in place.

I started by unrolling enough foil to cover one side lengthwise with about three inches extra on each side.

Once I had the sheet, I flipped it over so the duller side as facing me, sprayed it with the adhesive and then carefully inserted the sheet into the cabinet and did the bottom.  The extra length on each side was folded onto the opposing surface.   I repeated the process for the other sides and for the door also and found out with enough coaxing, I could almost "blend" the extra  foil into the sheet I had previously placed with just some finger pressure.  

I almost opted to get out the old rolling pin I had in the kitchen but not sure I could have gotten it to fit well enough to actually make a difference.

This is what the inside of the box looked like when I was finished and had the door reattached to the cabinet.  Not perfect, but still pretty damn good.

One thing to remember if any of you choose to build a UV bo is that mirrors, or silver paint really don't work that well with UV lights.  I had the same thought but before investing in either of those things, I figured I needed to do some research. 

Not sure now but I seem to remember reading a thread where someone was explaining how mirrors actually tended to absorb or change the wavelength pattern of the UV light and render it ineffective.  Silver paint didn't offer enough reflectivity to make it worth the effort.  

You can see the hole I drilled in the cabinet at the bottom of it.  That is where I planned to thread the wires.

I opted to put some round felt spacers beneath on the bottom to help ensure I had enough clearance between the cabinet and the desk with the bolts I was using.

These were some I picked up at Menards.  A set of 8 from Gorilla Glue ran me about 6 bucks.  They are pretty thick and hold great and allowed for enough clearance.

You can see the holes I drilled for the light brackets between the spacers.

The next step was to actually was to flip the cabinet back over and set the lights in there. 

Since I already had the holes drilled, It was simply a matter of placing the lights and brackets back in, threading in the screws and tightening them.

Be advised, its a tough operation since there isn't much clearance beneath the light and bracket but it can be managed.

After I had them mounted, I threaded all the the wiring through the central hole.

I didn't bother putting in any cable holders or tying them up on the inside at this point..  Not really necessary plus it ensured I had enough cable to reach just about any place I decided to place the power strip.

I did use cable holders to secure the power cords to the outside of the cabinet/UV box and then attached a power strip towards the back of the cabinet.  

This prevent the loose cables from cluttering the area, sticking out and gave the box a cleaner look.

The power strips position in the back was more or less to prevent any accidental powering down, plus it only had a 2 foot cord so it was easier to reach the wall outlet with it there.

Once everything was plugged in, it was time to turn it on and see how everything looked.

I powered it up and was pretty pleased with how it turned out overall.  I noticed some slight discrepancy in the lights right away, but after using it already, it only takes a few more minutes to cure baits with the new ones.

One of the perks of the new lights was that they had their own on and off switches so I can turn them off if I do not need to use them to cure anything.  Plus, the bigger baits would not hang down far enough to use their lighting.

After using this box a few times, I can see I could have probably gotten more powerful lights to help increase curing times, but since I am not painting baits to sell at this point, curing time is not really that critical.

When I do start to sell them, then I will have to upgrade the setup, but with this setup, upgrading to bigger lights should no be an issue.  I could also install some smaller light bars over top of the lights currently in place to increase the level of UV exposure the baits receive.

So there you have it...A relatively easy UV box build based mostly on material I had on hand.  Overall cost of the project would probably run close to 150 bucks or slightly more, all depending on the lights one buys.

Here's hoping you all get some use out of this article in the future.  And if anyone has any better methods or suggestions, feel free to post them in the comment section below.

Now its time to fire up the airbrush...I got baits to make.