DIY Exposure unit plans inc. vacuum top

[Grimbalo]

Hey up!

We run a small print shop in Norway and have been reading the forum for several years but it´s not often we put out any posts. We thought it was time to give the love back and show you all our new exposure unit.

We like a lot of people here have been using the old skool foam pad, sheet of glass and a halogen lamp to make our exposures. It´s been fine for basic stuff but as soon as we wanted to print big or get those tiny halftones popping it just didn´t cut the biscuit. After gleaning as much info from the forum as possible, and of course some advice from Andy we got it finished a few weeks ago...........oh are we smiling!

The basic design is based upon those plans that have been floating around here for a while (Peter Mar's/dave@confusement.com) so thanks a lot for those. We´ve dropped a copy of our design in the Premium section, take a look, make it better......

Graham and Erling, Automaton
www.automatonstudio.no

Here´s some pics:

[bongalong]

looks great, thanks for sharing.

try using sun tan neon lights, the ones that are used at the solarium tan shops.

i've found that they are a lot better than the black lights.

[DenisMutter]

Can i get one at my local IKEA?

[Adam]

Great job... it looks huge. What are the dimensions?

[Grimbalo]

Just waiting for IKEA now, gunna flat pack it into a 1/2 tonn package, and supply a really cheap shit screwdriver to put it all together!

Those solarium bulbs are what we wanted to use, but had loads of trouble sourcing the ballasters, seems like there´s a lot things happening in the world of fluorescent lighting and a lot of stuff is getting phased out, well at least over here in Norway!!

As for dimensions, well the glass plate is 190 x 150cm give or take a few mm. Takes our 130 x 155 screens no worries.

[Streeter]

What is the round piece in the corner?

Love the windows in the front, I'm assuming thats to check for good contact?

Great job! Thanks for sharing!

[Nicholas Wilson]

circle is probably for ventilation.

[Adam]

Yeah the windows are a nice idea. I often wish i could take a look inside my unit to make sure i have good contact.

[Josh Rickun]

dang that's intense. i just use pink insulation and bricks...makes it nice and dusty and i think i'm gona break the glass everytime i burn a screen.

[Grimbalo]

Yeah the round thing is an extractor fan, there´s an intake on the other side. Not sure if it´s 100% neccessary but i remember reading something about that a fluorescent tube's colour temperature changes according to temperature....thus the airflow.

The windows are to check the positive's position, but also so we can change the bulbs, that glass plate is seriously heavy and we shat bricks when we were installing it, i really don´t want to have to play with that again!

Josh - We built the main box first and tried to get away without building the vacuum top, but it was scarey as hell, we had to put loads of weight up on the glass in order to get anything like good contact between the screen and the positive, but it never worked very well. Maybe it´s the size of our unit but the glass began to bend under the weight, giving bad contact, so we needed to use more weight and of course the more weight you put on the more the glass bends and the more weight you need and so on and so on until you reach that magic point when the glass shatters, sprays shards in your face and everything suddenly goes dark! or...build a vacuum top