Although most workers won't have it at hand - the fastest and easiest
way to get the air bubbles out of liquid gelatin is by placing the
beaker in an ultrasonic bath. Within a minute all bubbles can be scraped
from the surface with a piece of paper. However I have done this with
clear gelatin only, so I don't know wether the pigment would get
undispersed and set at the ground...
Another possibility would go like this: Poor the gelatin onto a clean
sheet of plexi, just remove the biggest air bubbles and let the gelatin
set. Then, still wet, let it slip into cold (!) water. Place a sheet of
(pre-wetted) paper over the gelatin and take both out as you would do to
make the transfer prior to development, carefully avoiding trapped air
bubbles. No squeegeeing recomended this time, as the gelatin would
easily be sqeegeed out at the edges. Let the excess water drain off and
then let the sandwich dry overnight. You can peel the coated paper off
and will have a gelatin coating where the air bubbles that once were at
the gelatin's surface now are between the paper and the gelatin, where
they can't do any harm...
> 3. The now-dried tissue will be pre-soaked in distilled water at 60
> degrees F. just long enough to make it lay mostly-flat. No more than 5
> minutes.
I never found it necessary to pre-wet the tissue. Of course it starts
curling first (how tight the cigar gets rolled is depending on its
humidity) but I simply unroll it again and again. After a minute is
unrolls by itself and lies flat.
> 5. Squeegee the sensitized tissue face down on a sheet of clean,
> wetted glass.
Did you try to squeegee it on clean plexi and let it dry there? Next
morning you can peel it off and you'll have a perfect, glossy tissue...
> 7. Dried sensitized tissue can be stored in a sealed, light-tight
> container for a mazimum of two weeks at 40-45 degrees F.
Did you try to store it that long? How much fog or gain in speed did you
notice? I fear this won't work for ymc-tissues.
Nice to see more and more people trying carbon!
Klaus Pollmeier