too good to be true...

Guillermo

feb604 from Lloyd Erlick,

There's no doubt you could get away with trays;
it's been done for millenia. Thousands of
centuries of darkroom workers have used their
stone trays to wash prints...

I'd say six changes of water would be fine. Kodak
says (sorry I can't cite a specific reference, but
I've seen it countless times) five changes of
water are enough. They might be referring to film,
a bit of searching through Kodak's material might
be in order. But still, I'd say that six changes
(after using a hypo clear bath) including ten or
fifteen minutes soaking between changes, would do
a good job. Make sure the prints don't just sink
and stick closely to the bottom. Maybe put a bit
of plastic screen material in the tray so the
paper is kept off the botom.

The only advantage of commercial print washers is
the ability to ignore them for the duration of the
wash. The attended wash is actually superior in
terms of washing; it's very attention-intensive,
though, since you have to keep coming back and
sloshing the tray and making sure the prints are
not floating part way out into the air. But if one
is willing to do that (it's not so difficult!) one
can save a lot of money.

Basically FB material washes by diffusion of the
undesirable molecules out of the paper and
emulsion into the surrounding water. Diffusion
slows as the molecules collect in the surrounding
water, so it must be dumped and replaced. After
enough of this, the number of molecules in the
paper is reduced to the point where inducing more
to leave is very difficult, or even to the point
where no more molecules are actually present. This
concept does not imply that one must have a
commercial print washer, or spend money at all. It
only implies the sheet of paper must be allowed to
give up what we regard as contaminating molecules
in the only way it can, which is slowly by
diffusion.

To tell you the truth, I think it might be a
better use of time and resources to just forget
about tanks and special construction projects and
stick with producing beautiful prints. The project
takes up time and money that could go into paper
and darkroom activities. Plus there is the time
and effort of earning the money; time away from
the darkroom is bad for your mental health. Use
the old traditional methods and stay sane...

Another thought: what with so many people
abandoning the traditional darkroom, you'd think
there would be great big boxy plastic tank style
print washers available for cheap. We've seen the
price of 10x10 horizontal enlargers lately (under
200 bucks!). Washers must be out there, too.

regards,
--le
_______________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits,
2219 Gerrard Street East, unit #1,
Toronto M4E 2C8 Canada.
                ---
voice 416-686-0326
lloyd@the-wire.com
http://www.heylloyd.com
_______________________________________

... I only print 2, perhaps 3

feb604 from Lloyd Erlick,

I was going to go into my rant about quality over
quantity, but I see you got there ahead of me.

Your few, beautiful, carefully hand processed
prints will be not one bit better if you use a
commercial or homebrew washing device. Producing
them might (might, not necessarily) be more
convenient that way, but that's all.

Keeping a washer clean is a noxious chore. Washing
in trays means the 'washing apparatus' is likely
to be spotless.

regards,
--le
_______________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits,
2219 Gerrard Street East, unit #1,
Toronto M4E 2C8 Canada.
                ---
voice 416-686-0326
lloyd@the-wire.com
http://www.heylloyd.com
_______________________________________