I answered politely, but with a little shame, because it is so easy.

If you need a confidence-builder, we'll walk you through the steps necessary to build your own easy, inexpensive, and very effective black light fixture.

Just for reference, the Halloween 2000 display uses three of these fixtures. The giant spider on the roof has a fixture on the right and one on the left, each of which holds a single lamp. At ground level, one fixture holds two lamps, illuminating the giant spider web, and the FCG.

• Overview
• Shopping
• Installing and removing lamps
• Painting
• Storage
• Assorted notes

The shopping list is as follows:

item	quantity	cost	comments
fluorescent "shop light" fixture	1	$7-$9
black light lamp	1 or 2	$12 each	must have at least one
flat black spray paint	1/2 can	1	optional
silver spray paint	1/2 can	$2	optional

Here is the box my fixtures came in. [Save the box for later storage!]

These particular fixtures are made by Lights of America. We suspect that other brands of inexpensive "shop light" fixtures will work as well.

It is important that the fixtures be 4-feet long, and two-lamp units. This is because such fixtures are sold in huge quantities, bringing down the price. You can get smaller fixtures that you think should be cheaper - but they are more expensive. You can get fixtures made for a single lamp that you think should be cheaper - they are more expensive.

Make sure fixtures are rated to run the wattage of tubes you are going to use, probably 40W each. Many shop light fixtures these days are made for cheap lesser wattage tubes, like 25W, and will work poorly or not at all with full power 40W tubes.

I use only General Electric black light lamps. Here we see four such lamps, each one showing a different side of the packing sleeve.

Before going to the checkout stand, check every lamp by slipping it out of the packing sleeve. Make sure that the glass used for the tube is dark purple in color.

At one end of the lamp is a label etched into the glass. Find it and make sure it says "BLB" somewhere in it. Here's what the label looks like for General Electric lamps.

If you don't see the "BLB" designation, or the glass isn't dark purple, you have the wrong type of lamp. Put it back and try another. Sometimes the wrong lamps end up in the right packages.

When you get home, immediately open the fixtures, install the lamps, and try them out. Ideally, you will have two lamps per fixture. This is a good time to find out whether or not your two-lamp fixture will still operate with only one lamp. Most do, but you might have a design that doesn't.

Installing and removing lamps

There is one tiny trick to inserting and removing the large tubulular lamps from the fixture.

On each side of the fixture is a slot. At the bottom of the slot is a ring carved in the plastic.

You must carefully align the ends of the lamp so that the two pins are in a line with the slot. Once the pins are properly aligned, slip the lamp into the fixture. Slide the right pins into the right slot, and the left pins into the left slot at the same time.

Gently press the lamp all the way into the slot, so that the bottom pins hit the bottom of the slot.

Then gently twist the lamp 90-degrees. This rotates the pins in the ring-shaped carving, locking the lamp into place.

Storage

The cheap fluorescent fixtures are flimsey. You must protect them during moving and storage, or they will get twisted out of shape.

We like storing the fixtures in the original cardboard box they came in. If you are careful, this box will last for many years.

We store lamps in the fixtures: the box protects the fixture, and the fixture protects the lamps. But we leave the shipping sleeves on the lamps for additional protection.

This probably requires that you trim half an inch from the ends of the sleeves.

Most home improvement stores sell clear plastic tubes to go over fluorescent lamps. These tubes are intended to be used while the lamp is operating - if the lamp breaks during use, the clear tube holds the fragments together.

They aren't a good idea during use of black light tubes because the seemingly clear plastic actually blocks a part of the black light.

But they are great for storage.

Thank you for visiting. Your comments are welcome.
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