The Trials and Tribulations of Creating a UV Exposure Unit

Everything you will need to build a UV exposure unit on a budget

With the UK weather being as it is you cannot rely on a sunny day to expose your alternative photographic process prints. A more consistent source of UV light is neccessary. 

With the price of A3 sized UV exposure units be exorbitant with prices ranging from £350 to well over £1000 I went out to to source what I needed to build a DIY version that could accomadate an A3 or 16x12in print. 

First of all I tried to find an appropriately sized box. You could use an old drawer or build it yourself out of plywood or MDF but I used a 12x40x60cm Euro Stacking Box which you can pick up from sites like bigdug.co.uk for circa £10 plus postage.It took me ages to find a shallow box that would accommodate an A3 sheet of paper whilst not being too deep as a deep box would inevitably increase exposure times with the light source being further away from the exposing image and make the whole thing unnecessarily bulky. Using a plastic crate style box like the Euro box makes the whole unit much lighter and therefore much more portable.

Obviously a UV exposure unit isn't an exposure unit without a light source. For the light source I used UV black light LED strips. I originally purchased the the SMD2385 (don't ask me what SMD2385 means) version which isn't bright enough and produces incredibly long and inefficient exposure times so I had to cancel that purchase and went for the SMD5050 version in two lenghts of 5 meters which is long enough to fit 20 strips of 50cm within the 40cm (1 strip every 2cm) width of the box. Unlike me go for the self adhesive varity for convenience.


The SMD5050 UV black light LED strips of 60 LED's per meter are most easily sourced from either Amazon or Ebay at about £23 / 5 meter strip. Take note some are not supplied with the power supply so it will need to be sourced seperately. When you get the strips they'll tell you what voltage DC supply they'll require if not supllied with. 
If one strip of 5 meters requires a 12V / 5A power supply two strips will need a 12V / 10A power supply. In other words you may need to do some basic wiring.

The third basic ingredient to get this exposure unit off the ground is Aluminium tape which is easily available from many suppliers and should cost about £7 for 20 meters. 
This is used to cover the inside of the box which will aid light dispersion and thus allow shorter exposure times. 

These are the three basic items you'll need to build a UV exposure unit.

Additional you may (in some cases will definitely) need:

  • A Drill and appropriately sized drill bit
  • Cleaning materials
  • Double sided tape (if like me you accidently got the non self-adhesive varity)
  • Araldite epoxy (glue) or glue gun
  • Electrical terminal block
  • Wire strippers

Now you know the basic of what you need to build a UV exposure unit in the next post I'll do a step-by-step of how to make it.

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