It ain't pretty, but here's what I did for platinum and palladium. I
went down to Home Depot and bought a cheap, premade kitchen cabinet that
was 16(deep)x24x24 ($20) and a big outdoor mercury vapor lamp (175
watt), like a street lamp ($25), some heavy wire and a plug ($5), and
some silver aluminum roof flashing ($7). I wired the lamp to the
standard wall plug. Then I cut a hole in the back of the cabinet for the
bare bulb to stick through (throw away the diffuser globe that comes
with the lamp) and mounted the lamp assembly securely to the cabinet. I
then took the shiny roof flashing and covered the top of the inside of
the cabinet and wrapped it slightly down the sides like coving in a
studio. This acts as a small parabolic reflector to send more of the
light down to the print. I lay my paper directly on the floor of the
cabinet with my negative on top and cover it with a piece of 1/4 inch
glass. I close the cabinet door and plug the lamp into a wall socket and
the rest is art. My exposures run 8 to 12 minutes and I have invested
maybe $60 and two hours work in building the machine. Heat buildup has
not been a problem, however, if you copy this idea and blow yourself up
or burn yourself down or are caused harm in any way, both the secretary
and I will deny any knowledge of your activities!
AGAIN, THIS MACHINE IS UGLIER THAN A GORILLA'S EVIL STEPMOTHER SO YOUR
SIGNIFICANT OTHER WILL NOT ALLOW IT IN THE HOUSE OR NEAR THE CHILDREN!
But it works well.
-- Gordon SmithSend E-mailto:gsmith@dancris.com
WEB Page: http://www.dancris.com/~gsmith