Violin Forum/Message Board

[Chris E.]

Some random useless information: I noticed above someone had made there box and covered it with tin foil, presumably for reflective purposes. Tin foil's not nearly as reflective as you would think. I think it only reflects back around some 50% of the light that hits it. A nice coating of flat white paint reflects somewhere in the upper 90's.

[jethro]

I guuess all I remembered was the horrible lobster-like sunburns I used to get when I was 5 in an aluminum boat !
Wow, now I,m not sure which bulb to go for.....
Do I need the welding hat on to look insid the box with uvc ????
I will check out the others on my next trip to bib box hardware !

MLG: I have noticed that I have NEVER sliced myself with any fully sharp
tool-- ever ! It is allways something like a screwdriver or a very dull
chisel or gouge or knife.... So I sharpen a lot and often !

TB

[mapleleaf_gal]

[jethro]

I have added more uv lightsand am now up to four 2 footers.
I also added a small themometer. It now runs about 115-120 F
inside. I was thinking about this being such a small space---
does anyone think enough turpentine fumes might build up in the box
(mine is sealed) to prevent the turp in the varnish film from wanting
to evaporate ? I have considered a small fan with a foam filter
and running on a time clock say 2 minuites every hour or something
like that to change out the bad air for air not saturated with turp.
Maybe a brusless fan might be a good idea from an explosion hazard
point of view..... (?) I think some of the teeny little computer cpu
fans are brushless....
The rig now dries oil varnish in 24 hours dry to touch but still tender
and kind of rubbery ... somewhat faster than before !

T.

[Barry Dudley]

[mapleleaf_gal]

[jethro]

I bought some of those! They are called something like "daylight" or
"sunshine" - I forget I want to say they are GE brand. The color tempature is listed as 6500 K.

My box has the "hippie" bulbs. Kind of expensive though. Don't know if they're worth twice the price ....... (?)

Tim

PS how hot do your boxes run ?
Mine runs about 115 degrees F

[Barry Dudley]

Here is my box and it doesn't get hot at all! This is the first violin in the box. I just threw it together last week.
As you can see I have "hippie" blacklights.
The varnish is drying just fine. It is Joe Robeson's varnish and is also the first time I have used it. Maybe it drys good on it's own.

[JWH]

My box looks like Barry's except I have 2 BLB's (Blunt/Bong Lighting Bulb) on rear, 2 on the front which is the door and 1 on each side for a total of 6. Works fantastic.

I would agree with Chris on white over silver metallic surfaces for highest reflection. I remember as a kid on the Mojave desert being around our first Propane tanks in the 50's on the ranch. We had one 250 gallon and one 500 gallon tank. They were all silver-aluminum painted. In the middle of the days during the summer you could fry eggs on the surface, they were so hot. The relief valves were always hissing. Then it took an act of genius before propane companies finally realized that white tanks reflected far more heat radiation than silver tanks. My dad, even then, knew about all this, but because we rented the tanks we couldn't paint them white ourselves. When Suburban finally got us white tanks I remember putting my hands on them with 115 degree heat bearing down and they were actually not what I'd consider hot.
Now I wonder how long it will take these sun shield visor companies for automobiles to get smart about the same thing. Our neighbors must think I am dumb for exposing the white unintended back surface of a visor to the front of the window instead of that beautiful chrome side.

The moral to this story is to always varnish your violins white if you live on the desert.

[mapleleaf_gal]

[Barry Dudley]

I have placed a 60-watt incandescent bulb in my cabinet along with the 2 black light and even after leaving all the lights on overnight the temp only got to 79 deg. My cabinet seems to be working fairly well.
To get the temp up to 100 deg. you must be using bulbs with Kryptonite coating! Does your power come from a nuclear reactor close by?? LOL!

[jethro]

Mine runs about 110 to 120 Deg F.
I have it as a complete 6 sided box. The lid is on the top- which the scroll
hangs from. The 115 deg is with the lid on. There is no fan. It only gets
about 80 if I leave the lid off .
I may install a fan with a foam rubber filter. I don't want to stir up dirt
and dust into the wet varnish.

T

PS Did I mention that the bulbs are powered by a teacup cold fusion
reactor ????? ( a physics joke)

[Barry Dudley]

Update on the results with my drying cabinet.
I made the cabinet large enough to accommodate a viola, lined it with aluminum foil and installed 2- 24" florescent fixtures. I put Phillips Black light bulbs in the fixtures. The bulb is the type commonly seen in night clubs.

It has done an excellent job of drying the Joe Robson varnish overnight. As a test at the same time I applied some of the same varnish to a sample pice of maple and just let it air dry in the shop. After a couple of days the sample piece was still tacky and the violin was dry after one night in the box. I took the sample piece that was still tacky and placed it in the drying box and the next morning it was completely dry.

You results may vary but this seems to work fine for me.
I appreciate everyones input.

[Dave Chandler]

After reading your posts, built myself a drying cabinet.

It consists of 3 chambers, the tall central chamber for the violin with a shaped peg set in the bottom center to hold the violin, and a door.

An small upper chamber about 6 inches tall, which has two rows evenly spaced 1-1/2 holes to vent the central chamber, then offset holes at the top with filter material filling this small chamber. I used material from an filter for air conditioning unit. This keeps dust from coming down and getting into the main chamber, but allows good air movement.

I have a similar chamber at the bottom although more holes than the top to allow maximum heat to escape upward, and again, it has dust filters over the air intake area. In this lower chamber I have a 75W bulb with polished aluminum shield to direct heat upward and away from the frame. I used a contact digital thermometer and found the wood framing went to 120 deg or more with 100 w bulb, so I dropped back to a 75 W and the wood framing only goes to about 105 degrees.

This is in my "dungeon" workshop (in the basement), and without heat on this time of year, the room is about 55 degrees when I'm not running heater in the room, but inside the drying box is 85. As weather gets warmer, I expect it'll hold the temperature about 95 to 100 degrees. The warm air rising creates a nice flow upwards, and you can feel it escaping by putting your hand over the top vents. The bottom of the violin seems to dry faster than the scroll area, but that's ok.

Before I built this, I would varnish, wait about 2 hours for some of the initial fumes to dissipate, then take it into the house to dry, usually taking 4-5 days to lose its tackiness. Now it takes less than 2 days, and I'm happy with that. No special bulbs. Hinges, worklight, bulb, filter, probably have $20 total invested using scrap plywood.
_________________
Dave in the Blue Ridge
Southern Violin Association

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

"I took the road less travelled, and now I don't know where I am." Marco Polo

[JWH]

"Mine runs about 110 to 120 Deg F."

I guess it would depend on the varnish but mine would bubble up at these high temperatures. Since oil varnish is dried by photoreactive UV polymerization, excessive heat doesn't play an important role.