Sources for glass plates

[jnantz]

for years i got all my glass plate on trash day
when my neighbors threw out their intact windows.
i'd just remove the glass.
i also got a bunch when developers were demolishing a greenhouse.


now that i buy it in a glass place, the cheapest thin pane glass works best.
no idea what kind of glass it is, but its cut to perfect dimension, and if i want
the edge is removed. i think i paid about 60-75¢/4x5 and a bit more for 5x7 annd 8x10

[Tin Can]

Now that this discussion is fragmented, we need to cross-talk. Doesn't cleaning emulsion off old plates take a bit of work and the glass condition is unknown until it is fully cleaned? Which is the discussion now on the other thread.

Seems to me new glass may be a time saver and time is money. It may have been wise for OP to state in the other thread, how many plates were desired and what condition. I have boxes of NOS unused glass negatives, but I see their value as objet d'art in their preserved condition and not as scrap to be recycled.

I realize Oren's goal is no comment Sales threads. Which I support 75%. End of comment.

[Nodda Duma]

Hi Randy,

I'm a user not a collector..that distinction is pertinent perhaps. Nothing wrong with recycling, except to note my recycling efforts do not include developed or suspected exposed but undeveloped plates. Destroying such would be a travesty.

Barring those, unused plates are really just equivalent to a roll of old expired badly fogged film pulled out of its canister. If you see value in preserving that then more power to you I guess. Recycling's not a dirty word here. Breathing new life into something old is a more positive viewpoint.

I purposely avoided stating how many I need...the answer is inevitably "more than what could ever be offered". The threshold is cost per plate, not total count as I expect to work in this media for the foreseeable future.

Cleaning is necessary whether new or old (new requires removal of residual manufacturing oils). The difference in what I could offer for old vs cost of new accounts for attrition rate due to age-induced silvering of the old glass. Although having pushed glass in an optical shop I could recover those too if I were so inclined.

Anyways..this is an odd discussion when it comes down to it. Defending recycling, lol.

Btw I have no problem with the answer that new glass is the most economical.

[Tin Can]

I understand. Perhaps I prefer sealed boxes of plates intact. I occasionally shoot the poor old things finding the results interesting, maintaining a romantic delusion that magical results appear. The induced images have a distant appearance where age flaws are cherished.

I sympathize with your desire for cost efficiency. For me Howard Glass was my economic solution as I prefer large supply and find cleaning factory glass easier with solvent usage reduced. As I use these samples I will recycle by reuse.

In the end all glass will return to mother as sand.

[Nodda Duma]

Randy Re: cleaning with solvents. I've found using rottenstone and a sponge to be effective in cleaning the plates for this application. Good alternative to solvents and the emulsion adheres perfectly well.

[jnantz]

Maybe you could reach out to glass makers...this recently happened with hahnemuhle papers which just finished beta testing a new platinum paper and is being released shortly..if the materials are available more people can try these methods

peter

i have also heard of people going to thrift stores, jobbers/wholesalers, junkstores, places that
sell "stuff that fell off the truck/train and had a damaged box so we can't sell it" &c
and buying picture in frames or picture frames, and using that glass instead of other sources.
i seem to remember my local pharmacy selling 8x10 + 5x7 picture frames NEW for like $1 each.
( i haven't looked in a while, that might have been a few years ago )

[Tin Can]

By solvent I refer to the well known and universal solvent, water.

Randy Re: cleaning with solvents. I've found using rottenstone and a sponge to be effective in cleaning the plates for this application. Good alternative to solvents and the emulsion adheres perfectly well.

[jnantz]

By solvent I refer to the well known and universal solvent, water.

randy,
i have washed old and NEW dry plates with plain old hot water, and then a stiff bristle brush and washing soda.
worked like a charm

[Tin Can]

randy,
i have washed old and NEW dry plates with plain old hot water, and then a stiff bristle brush and washing soda.
worked like a charm

Yes, I remember HS Chemistry where the teacher taught me water was the universal solvent that dissolved more substances than anything else.

As I understand clean glass, the test of clean is whether or not, water sheets off the glass in one 'sheet' and does not form puddles or droplets. Of course we test this at a slight angle, not perpendicular to gravity.