UV LIGHTS?

[drygulch]

Howdy ever body
Got a question here. when looking at black lights does the wattage of the lights make a difference ? I am going to get a portable light for out in the field with sw and lw however the wattage thing has me buffaloed.
DRYGULCH

 

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[Eu_citzen]

I don't know, ask your supplier/seller he should know. Maybe even the producer might help.

 

[EDDE]

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,68686.0/topicseen.html

 

[diamondjim]

ofcourse wattage makes a difference...it lets you see father. I would go with the best you can afford. The wattage isn't going to change the color of what you see, just the intensity. So bigger is better...but any lamp that gets you out looking and finding is a good thing. Good luck.

Just curious, night hunt, cave hunt, or day hunt tent with no floor?

 

[drygulch]

Howdy
Thankyou for your replies.
Right now I am just trying to figure out what to get in the way of ultra violet lights for rocks and gems. Most of my hunting will be night hunting, and caves under the right circumstances, and unless I am very surprised at the effectiveness of uv lighting I do not plan on day light hunting.
So far I am strongly leaning towards the Versalume lights. I am very sceptacle about the LED UV lights, they may bo ok for looking for counterfit money but afraid they would be very dissapointing in the field.

Well what do you all think, am I way off base with my thinking, do you agree or disagree, or have any suggestions, comments, ideas, or just want to give me some BS. I consider any information I can get as being useful one way or another.

DRYGULCH

 

[diamondjim]

wouldn't discount LED UVs...just look at how powerfull ordinary LEDs have gotten.

here in the dungeon I use a 24 inch fluorescent novelty black light from wallmart...works wonders. Even that won't light up the entire bathroom at once, just to give you an idea of scale. (darkest room in my house) But at 3 feet gives a wide and bright response in UV minerals, enough to actually take pics with ordinary digital cam.

you're not going to get anything to light up a whole hill side...but just the ability to go out and light up a couple of square feet at a time will be better than sitting around thinking about it. For the mineral hunt you gonna hunt right on top of the rocks anyways, not half a mile away.

a note about day light hunt...I once saw pics of this guys rig in New Jersey...modified tent of thick canvas, like a small dome, blocked out enough light to hunt in the day, but kinda hot in the middle of summer.

 

[drygulch]

Right now we got a bunch of snow on the ground so I don't think I am going to be finding much of any thing. Have you tried the LED UV lights ? Will they actually make minerals illuminate or do they just work on a piece of white paper? Not being able to light up a hillside was never intended that is why I wasn't going to day hunt

 

[Eu_citzen]

http://www.raytech-ind.com/ they seem to have a few Uv-lamps to offer.

 

[diamondjim]

Sorry, never tried LED UV's. If it's question of pure power, I'd guess based on new LED stuff, that yes it can probably deliver plenty of power to walk along and light up the ground at your feet. As for being the right frequencies to make minerals glow, I just don't know. My walmart novelty black light is very "sloppy" has wide freq emmission...I can't tell you if a mineral is lw or sw...just that it glows. Great for quick checks of new material coming in the door, bad for IDing stuff.

Always wanted to do the night UV hunts, just never had the gear, so please keep us posted with your progress...very curious myself as to where LED UV will lead.

 

[DennisB]

Got a 14 lamp led uv light, can't remember where or what site. Lites up flourescents real nice. I have a buch of rocks, minerals? that are flourescent coming si I will let you know the outcome.

Dennis

 

[DennisB]

Bingo! EDDekalb hooked us up.
http://www.ambericawest.com/blacklight5.html

Dennis


This is the one I got. Gonna order 2 more.

 

[M3R1IN]

i wanna use a UV light to distinguish some of my gemstones from quartz, what wavelength would be best for this? and do those 14 lamp LED flashlights work very well?

 

[Eu_citzen]

i wanna use a UV light to distinguish some of my gemstones from quartz, what wavelength would be best for this? and do those 14 lamp LED flashlights work very well?

Oh damn I've never heard anyone say that before

Short wave:
http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/property/fluotabl.htm#short
Long wave:
http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/property/fluotabl.htm#long

Here is a small and cheap UV lamp:
http://www.minerox.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=1438