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Can I build a curing rig cheaper?
I get a dozen or so phone calls a week by people wanting to build their own UV curing rigs for guitar finishes, pool cues, lots of surf board makers and some more esoteric uses. There are usually two reasons why someone wants to build their own rig:
1. It costs less than buying a setup.
2. Building their own rig means a better suited system for their application
This short "article" (if you will) is for those of you that want to skimp when building your own rig.
From my experience, you can build your own rig and save a lot of money versus buying a special purpose unit. Some of these system cost upwards of $5,000 or more and you can easily build your own for less than a grand. Sometimes, a lot less than a grand. My experience has shown that these homemade kits do just as good a job as the more expensive, "store bought" rigs, when they are constructed properly. Once you have decided to build your own, however, don't let thriftiness get in the way of getting good results. Sometimes, the difference between spending $400 and $800 in materials makes all the difference in the world when it comes to getting results. In short: Don't skimp on the number of lamps used in your unit. You are already saving thousands of dollars, don't let greed screw up your results.
I know, you are on a tight budget, and you are tempted to just buy the 4 lamp, $200 kit here, then spin the item so it gets exposed on all sides. For small items, this might work ok, but not so much for larger items. A good example is finishing guitars.
The problem with spinning a guitar is that the edges of the guitar will get closer to the lamps than the front and back of the guitar, so they will cure first. This means the guitar isn't curing at the same time throughout the body. For electric guitars this might not be such a problem as the finish of the guitar does affect the sound, but isn't nearly as important as the wood. Acoustic guitars, however, it can make a huge difference in tone. Maybe better, maybe worse, maybe not at all. It depends on the wood and the finish product. And honestly, since I don't build fine acoustic guitars, and don't have a bunch of unfinished guitars laying around for comparison testing, I can't really tell you what it will do to the tone. Do you feel lucky?
A rig that has enough lamps to fully saturate the guitar with light evenly on all sides would be preferable if you can swing it. I'm assuming that if you are building hand crafted guitars, you should be charging enough to offset the extra $200-$400 it will cost to properly cover the instrument, but the risk is yours to take. If you have some experience (good or bad) with finishing guitars "rotisserie style", by all means, call me at 1-800-274-1744 x126 and share your experiences and I will be happy to pass them along.
Until then, I strongly suggest that you cure all items (guitars, baseball bats, whatever) by having enough lamps to cover the entire surface that is being cured, at one time. This way you aren't curing on a gradient, and the finish is more likely to be stronger, more integrated into itself, and can act as a single bonded surface. While I don't have any scientific data to draw on, my experience as a musician (and gut instinct) tells me that a fine acoustic guitar or other instrument is more likely to have excellent tone when the finish is evenly cured.
Your friend and fellow guitarist,
Dennis Brown
2/15/2012
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