Re: drying racks?
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009, phritz phantom wrote: so, i'm in the process of building drying racks for, well... drying, but especially for drying coated emulsions and sensitized tissue. the classic workflow would be to coat, leave flat for some time, then hang to dry- i guess. that's what i've been doing until now. but i don't want to do the hanging anymore, because the only place to hang them is above my bathtub and i don't feel comfortable with that anymore. also horizontal drying is beneficial sometimes.Phritz: What are you using to coat with? In my experience, it's not necessary to have drips... in fact, if you've coated so fluidly that there are drips, you risk, not just the drips onto self in the bath, and your priceless Persian carpet, but channels, streaks, uneven routes through the course of your print where a streak has run down. For what it's worth I describe the set up I've used these many years: In a corner of the studio (my "light room") I have a supply cabinet about 40 inches wide... that's backed up against a jog in the wall to make a space about 40 by 36 or 40 inches (anyway bigger than the largest paper I use) thus shrouded on 3 sides, and I've got a black plastic light-proof curtain that pulls across the 4th side. Inside this space, that is, on the back of the cabinet and the wall facing it, I have wood strips that hold 5 screens from a disused print washer, one over the other, maybe 6 inches of vertical space between them. (Screens in ANY size to fit your space can be ordered at your local hardware store... get the-- oops, I'm blanking on the screening material, but it's somewhere in Post-Factory, and/or someone should know... Not the ancient kind of window screen, in aluminum or other metal, but the "modern" kind in some kind of synthetic or plastic). Just inside the black "curtain," I have a support (a low chest of drawers in fact, doubles as extra storage space) for a small fan. (We use these little fans all over the house, they cost about $10 apiece, have a very small footprint and energy bite and ... we only had the AC on TWICE so far this summer !) This fan will dry the paper, depending of course on thickness & ambient temp. & humidity in 15 minutes to a half hour. The double plug on the wall also allows a safelight for inspection(s), which I find very handy, though frankly IME if it comes to that, these "alt" coatings can all take a short exposure to normal room light. (I have an idea that ambient humidity, and time since coating, are more significant variables than exposure to ambient light... tho for extra credit maybe someone wants to test that?) In any event, do NOT try to coat by "safelight." A yellow emulsion (as they tend to be) cannot be seen or judged by "safelight," tho it never ceases to amaze me how many folks do manage to coat credibly by safelight -- also how many "how to" books and essays call for it. (I coat by whatever my room light is at the time, in fact next to my north-facing "picture windows." In school we coated under fluorescents, which for some reason are also considered a no-no. No problems -- just get the wet paper into the dark ASAP. I coat gum with a soft foam brush, smoothed with hakie. But cyano, VDB, etc., always coated very nicely with just the foam. Don't mix processes in yr applicator, is my experience... or anyway my practice. They're cheap enough to have one for each & it really wastes water trying to wash them clean enough to remove all traces of the previous. (Tho maybe folks living in the great outdoors haven't had 3 hikes in their water rate this year?) It's not clear to me, Phritz, why you had to wash "frames" -- I coat on a plastic sheet, or something else wipe-able, or brown paper, or whatever... though as a rule I don't anyway coat edge to edge, leaving a margin for handling (even 1/2 inch at one end works & can be trimmed off later if need be)... etc. etc. Judy
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