Somewhere I saw where someone was comparing his LED flashlight to his UV goo curing factory lights …he liked the flashlight better…Do regular LED bulbs cure fly tying goo?
Don’t quote me, but I do not think LED will cure UV Goo. I think it has to be UV. Someone will let us know soon.
If you get a UV LED flashlight it will work. I bought one off ebay last year for about $10. A regular white LED flashlight doesn’t work. If you get a UV one, be careful not to shine it in your eyes…
Ted
White light LEDs wont cure the UV cured epoxies. You need a different wavelength of light.
Like tedshuck said, you need UV LEDs. Of the top of my head, you need something in the 400nm range.
I got this 6 or 7 years ago for curing UV Knotsense on ebay. $1.50 shipped from a beauty supply store in China. I guess they use them to cure nail polish or something like that. Have never tried LED…
I read the linked article and he specifies at the beginning they were all UV LED flashlights. As has been said before a regular LED flashlight for lighting purposes is the wrong wavelength. The UV lights have LED bulbs yet they are in the UV wavelength. I actually picked up a UV laser pointer that I use for curing my UV resins.
Kelly is correct, all of the flashlights in my article are UV LED flashlights…
Some were multiple LED, and the Solarez a single CREE Style LED…
Kelly, there must be a difference in laser pointer wave lengths also since I have a couple and have tried them on UV and no setting effect at all.
Yes, mine has a specific UV wavelength thus making it a most excellent choice for curing UV resin. I was so impressed I bought a second as a backup.
Jason, welcome to the forum. Your article contained some great info. For others don’t confuse LED and UV. LED are a type of bulb while UV is a light frequency of said bulb (thus the more common purplish hue of a UV light when in use) so there can be regular LED flashlights with bright white light for lighting our way and LED UV lights for curing our UV resins.
Is there the chance that length of UV present in daylight LED light light bulbs, some of us just pursed from Big Box Stores for upgrading our tying bench lights could cure UV resins? Fishin’Jimmy
I doubt that they will cure UV resin. If they can I wouldn’t use then as fly tying lights. You need to control when and where you direct the UV light, otherwise the resin will start to cure on the tool or brush while you are applying the resin to the fly.
I have quite a bit of experience with UV cure resins since I developed my own resin that is guaranteed to cure tack fee. It is also very DURABLE FAST CURE as noted in the posts below.
http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/forum/index.php?threads/best-non-tacky-resin.92990/
http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=77271The video below will show you how fast it cures. Fast forward to 4 minutes 30 seconds to see the cure takes a few seconds with my flashlight.