Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Tue, 13 Jul 1999 20:56:21 -0400 (EDT)
I have a "postpone" function on my server that operates like Godzilla --
Somehow this message got swallowed there. Time moves swiftly on e-mail,
but perhaps the following is still of interest:
On Mon, 12 Jul 1999 LAShively@aol.com wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> The ink-jet vs laser discussion is very enlightening, but I am wondering
> about the wax and mineral oil...how are they used? and why?
When making negatives with these printers, as often as not (in fact even
oftener) plain paper works better than transparency material, which may
not absorb the dye, or the dye spreads -- in any event in my tests didn't
have the contrast and density of plain paper. But printing through the
plain opaque paper is VERY slow.
To make the paper more translucent it's waxed or oiled (just like Wm H.
Fox Talbot's "waxed paper negative!), so it prints in less than 1/3 the
time. My tests showed that waxing worked much better -- lasted longer, and
not sticky, That's heating the paper with a hot iron & quickly rubbing
with block of paraffin. (In the archives.) But others prefer the oil:
Peter Fredrick uses sunflower oil, I think someone else recently said
mineral oil.
It's possible that different inks & different papers respond differently.
But on the sample inkjet print I tried, there was NO smearing or
offsetting of the toner. Garet says he uses laser printer at work -- which
I gather gives no problem with waxing/oiling. But in this house both b&w
photo copy and my b&w laser writer, which have similar toner, will offset
the black if not carefully done.
This toner will, when heated & waxed, tend to pucker and come off on the
underlying sheet, a problem minimized by waxing face down on a
silicone release sheet (bought in sheets or rolls), but the operation
still requires care.
Garet is concerned about the drying up of the nozzles, as was I. But the
word from the list now is that Epson has solved that problem with its new
inks and/or printers. Several users testified that it no longer happens.
(I've heard tales of horror about how it did in the "olden days", like
last year.)
I guess the answer to my original question is obvious -- buy an Epson.
Thanks again to all for the info...
Judy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:40:36