UV Rays on Pokémon cards question

[apbsayin]

There are certain cards I have that I think, if with precision, changing the color in certain areas would simply just look cooler. & obviously these are cards I’m keeping for myself.

My question is, besides the sun, is there a product (assuming one of you guys have used it, or can confirm it works) that can precisely do a certain area? Such as a tiny dot for example, or a square.

I once tried adding blue tape to cover areas I didn’t want & I attached it to my window so it faces the sunlight, after 3 weeks there wasn’t any change, looked the same.

Most of the card was covered, the areas that were exposed were very small, & of course the card was inside, not outside, (but it was facing sunlight), but figured after 3 weeks it would work, it didn’t. So I’m looking to see if there’s a product that can do the job. Maybe a certain laser? If so, what laser? I don’t know. What actually works? What has been tested?

[mrbubbles]

Tagging @qwachansey since I think he is doing all sorts of experimentation exposing cards to UV light to show how it affects the different ink layers.

Cheers!

[octaane]

Make what is called a “mask” out of cardboard. Blue painters tape will not cut it. Cut out the pattern you want from the mask, then secure the mask to the card. I suggest putting the card in a penny sleeve and taping the mask over it, effectively mounting it to a slightly larger board.

Then, place the card if a place where it will recieve full sunlight for several months. You should see color changes in the desired area.

A faster way to do this is to use a grow light for plants and point it directly at the card 24/7 from a close distance. They are much stronger, and have more UV (especially red/purple ones).

[lapraslaughing]

Three weeks is not enough time,

An experiment was run to test the validity of a product of mine

Here is all three cards after 1 year

One with no protection, one with the Uv filter acrylic and one control

This is a year of full Sun exposure in a west facing window

Here is the color value of the control copy

Here is the color value of the UV protected copy

Here is the color value of the exposed copy

Across a whole year we only saw a %30 decrease in some values,

That means 3 weeks was maybe 1-2% change, not enough for your goals

Hope this helps

[qwachansey]

The red (magenta) and yellow will fade first. Blue (cyan) takes much longer to fade.

Here’s what my windows currently look like lol.

If you want to see results within weeks, you will need a UV light that runs 24/7. You can achieve this kind of fading in only a week or two.

And then this level in a month.

[pfm]

Can you link to a light like this (amazon?). I have some museum glass I’d like to test out

[qwachansey]

I use this one.

There are also boxes for things like curing materials or disinfecting, but they usually run on a timer and not 24/7.

My setup looks like this. I placed the light facing down on a plant potter which fits nicely and have it directly facing the card.

I elevated the card within the pot using a toilet paper tube underneath it so that it is as close to the light as possible

Then I cover it with a pillowcase to avoid UV exposure. However do not cover it tightly or or have the card directly touching the light or it could overheat.

If you want to test a pane of glass you could hang the UV light onto something and have it face down or just angle it towards the glass.

[apbsayin]

I have a UV light thing (to harden resin) & which the card would be just 3/4 inches under it, but because it is used to harden resin I always thought maybe it’s too powerful, could destroy the card. I wonder if watts matter (or the power of the light, if that’s even a thing) & maybe if that’s something I have to pay attention to.

& if I do use a UV, for specific areas I suppose cutting cardboard as a mask then is better than using blue tape even if layered? The problem with the cardboard is that if I want a specific spot that’s as small as 2 millimeters, might be too hard to cut. If I use tape it’s easier, but I wonder if the UV light will just blast right through that.