This is what you want and you can't do much better in price. Shop around on ebay for free shipping. Also you can get the entire unit with ballast for less than $30 with 4 bulbs. Buy two and you could build something that did both sides at once.
With the plain tubes you still need ballasts but I found one can hack Walmart CFL bulbs to get a source of low cost electronic ballasts that will run these bulbs. Note: there is a slight circuit difference between the coiled tubes and the U-tubes. The U-tubes have a capacitor inside the plastic base that connects between the two filiments. In the coiled units the cap is usually on the circuit board so make the necessary adjustment.
The germicidal or clear lamps are not what you want, the spectrum is too short of wave length for most resist systems --not to say it will not work but the longer wave of 395 to 400 nm is better. These bulbs have a phosphorecent coatings that converts the shorter wave energy to more of what you need.
Although I have not attempted this my self, I suspect a neon sign transformer would run almost any number of these lamps all hooked in series. How about a car ignition coil and 555 timer driver? Sounds like a good project for someone.
Craig
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "steve.oconner@..." <steveparkins@...> wrote:
>
> Just in the process of converting an old scanner into an exposure box and wondered about using small UV tubes or maybe UV Led's ? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Cheers Steve
>