Epoxy doming is the addition of a glass like shell to a decorated item. This could be anything from labels printed on an ink jet printer to lapel pins made from metal. The doming process depends on surface tension to form a bubble of epoxy on item being decorated without going off the edge of the item. The epoxy is then exposed to low intensity ultra violet light which initiates a chemical reaction that causes the epoxy to harden.

Until recently the equipment required to create epoxy domed items was very expensive and was only feasible on large scale jobs. Due to setup costs and product waste anything under 500 pieces was considered to small an order to be worth while, many companies had minimum orders in the thousands. Thanks to new low intensity cure epoxies you only need an inexpensive low intensity UV light source to be able to create the same products that only the big boys could a few years ago. That coupled with innovations that simplify application of the epoxy have brought it to the small scale factor that makes it feasible to do small runs. This opens up a market for short run items that was not previously possible.

I started doming items a few years ago. I started with two part mix doming kits and had limited success. I kept searching for something better when I ran across UV curable epoxies made for doming. These new epoxies looked like the perfect product except the UV ovens available for curing started at $3,000.00 and up. I then found a source for an epoxy that would cure using low intensity UV light, basically a black light. This was great! I bought some and was able to make small runs with good success. However I still ended up spending over $1,000.00 on used dispensing equipment that was not really suited to short run jobs, it was wasteful, messy and required an in house air system to push the epoxy out of a syringe. I used this for about a year, but I was always looking to make it better, less expensive and simpler.

I got rid of one computer in my office and was left with an old keyboard drawer. The kind that you place your computer or monitor on and your keyboard slides in and out in a drawer. I started looking at the drawer and decided to see if I could attach some UV lights inside and make a much better light source for curing the epoxy. It worked out great, lots of room, brought the epoxy to within one inch of the UV bulbs (recommended curing distance) and was very easy to use since it slid in and out.

About six months after making the UV oven, I attended a small get together with other sublimation decorators to give a demo of epoxy doming. At the demonstration I got a lot of questions and interest in my home made UV oven, many asked if I had considered marketing it. Well to make a long story short I have now started producing the ovens for sale but I felt that all that I learned about storing epoxy, use, dispensing and supplies needed would be better packaged as a kit. So I bring you the UltraDome kit. This kit contains everything you need to get started in doming your products.