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Thread: 405nm fun and usage

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    North of Jackson Michigan USA
    Posts
    363

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    Perfect, thanks much!

    ...Mike
    Runs with Lasers

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Fort Mill, SC USA
    Posts
    1,507

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    Quote Originally Posted by ZeroPoint View Post
    The Home Depot sells Rust-Oleum brand glow in the dark paint. They sell both a spray can and a small 7oz can of latex based paint. I used the latex paint. . .
    Good advice, Zeropoint. For zinc sulfide, I've used about 60 cans of the Krylon spray paint. The stuff is cheap, but doesn't go on evenly and the fumes and dust are really bad. It also has a slight green tint to it which is unsightly and unnecessary.

    For the long lasting strontium aluminate, I use GlowInc's Smooth green V10 water-based paint and apply it with an air sprayer over a bright white base coat and was careful to apply an even, thick coat. Two quarts of the stuff covers an 8 foot by 4 foot space for $300. (Pro-tip, register and wait for a sale as they do up to 50% off a couple times a year.)

    Initially, I tried their solvent based regular V10 paint and applied it to temporary panels as a proof-of-concept. I initially tried to apply it with an air sprayer and that did not work at all as the particles were too large and got left in the can. I eventually brushed the stuff on and although that worked, it was not an even coat and even if it were, the particles are so large that drawings using 405nm look rough. This was a painful $400 loss although the panels are portable for LEM demonstrations. I also applied zinc sulfide on the back of the panels for further testing/demos.

    Here are the two examples re-posted in other threads for comparison.

    This is the rough panel stuff trial (showing both the regular large grained V10 strontium aluminate stuff and zinc sulfide):


    While this is the room with the much better smooth strontium aluminate (on the back bar wall) while the rest of the room is the zinc sulfide Krylon spray paint:


    Oh, one additional advantage of the smooth (smaller particles) of strontium aluminate versus the larger ones is a shorter charge time and quicker discharge time. Unless you want to see your drawing for hours after, you'll appreciate something that pretty much discharges within 20 minutes.

    -David
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Syracuse, NY
    Posts
    287

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    Wow! I love the abstracts you've got going on there. I'm starting to play around with Beyond's abstract generator but I still don't know what I'm doing. I'll need to play around with some strontium aluminate soon. I really like what you've got going on there.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Posts
    196

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    I'm glad the 405nm and GITD discussion has continued. And this is only a small part of the beauty found in this hobby. Looking at the Smooth Glow paint it's $12,262 for 50 gallons. That makes it $245.52 for a gallon as opposed to the price of $436. We should do a group buy to save some cash and do it when they do their %50 off promotion making it only $122.62 for a gallon.

    Zeropoint yeah with a group of us the cost for gas reduces dramatically and sharing a room would be cheap as well. I think with 4 people it was 25 dollars each I believe.

    Alright I think I'll pick up a 16x then. I got worried about popping one but tbh out of all of the 405 diodes I've bought not one went bad on me. That was back when the 8x diodes were the new kid on the block. Ah good memories.

    If spraying is not an option and I know how bad brushing on can be then I propose pouring.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    After you apply no less than 3 coats of white paint you can use either that frog tape or even the water based clay they use in silicone moulds and do the same exact thing they do with molding which is to create walls around the area you want to apply the silicone or in our case the paint.

    As long as you have a seal around the area you can pour the paint in the center and let it fill in the area. Do multiple coats and let it sit somewhere away from dust and other airborne particles. It should dry a perfectly even coat for however time it takes to dry. This should work just fine but remember you must have at least 3 coats of white paint. This is an old trick I learned from my uncle when I was a kid for the proper procedure of painting objects gold.
    Last edited by Shadow; 02-18-2017 at 17:47.

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