Fresh dry plates in a variety of sizes

[Tin Can]

Hi Jason,

I see a fresh batch has shipped from your Etsy store. https://www.etsy.com/listing/5812747...sr_gallery-1-1

Thank you.

Last night I watched a glass plate cleaning youtube which related how edge treatment reduces frilling. https://youtu.be/B0rvfo71ZNM
ps For those annoyed by full links, there are more that will not click on a Hot Link. Full links give us some idea what we are clicking on.

[Two23]

1. I used to cut glass to size with hand-cutter. This worked fine for all my holders but it's obviously causing problems. I have a benchtop cutter now which makes straight cuts like from a factory.

2. I've also started treating the edges for safety, and I've added a round notch on the upper right edge like what's done for sheet film and for the same reason.

3. New plates have nominal dimensions of 4.961" x 3.937" (126x100 mm). Regardless of the units, I'm confident the new plates will fit much easier than plates from the first public run.

1. This should not only help uniformity, but also make you more efficient. I think you're going to see some increasing demand.

2. I like the notch idea. Also like dulling the edges. Because of the stupid tablets I'm on for awhile, once I start to bleed it takes awhile to get it stopped.

3. I think those will work for me too. Again, it's an increase in efficiency (standardization) for you.


Kent in SD

[Nodda Duma]

Thanks guys.

I must admit, transitioning from making these for myself to making these for others was a big leap of faith and more than a little stressful. I knew there would be bumps in the road, but I wasn't sure from what direction it'd come from. So feedback -- good or bad -- is important.

The support you guys have shown has been awesome. My goal is to give people better access to dry plate photography, and better access to the emulsions of the time which no one else really makes anymore on a commercial basis (that and making my wife happy about being able to cover my hobby expenses). So working through these issues is good in that it helps me get to that goal and gives photographers more options in a time when options are dwindling.

So yeah I'm pretty excited about this stuff, even when it's about uncovering issues and working to solve them. Tired from working during the day and coating plates at night, but excited nonetheless!

-Jason

[Steven Tribe]

Thanks for your heroic efforts. We are only delighted to be part of the experiments and realise this is not a commercial venture but a real contribution to the waft of possibilities available for LF in general!

[Nodda Duma]

Thanks for the comments, Steve. Everyone has been awesome with the support.

But don't feel too bad. Swamp me with orders! That's what keeps me improving both the quality of the current offering as well as exploring new possibilities.

[Steven Tribe]

My 1/1 dryplates have made it to Denmark and through customs (+25%!) - but I won't be able to get them for about 18 days (travel abroad very soon and slow internal postage) so no feedback from me until then. I won't waste my time as I have some old ilford lantern slide plates (3 1/4 x3 1/4") which I can use to test development, hardening etc!

Does anyone know(remember) the likely speed of these Ilford lantern plates?

[Randy]

Jason, when / if you decide that this project is to much for you, do up a pdf of your chems and process, step by step, and offer it to us form members at a di$count - perhaps with a video included I would like to, some day, coat my own.

[Nodda Duma]

Nah, this workload is nothing compared to high profile R&D projects I've been on in the past.

In any case if it gets to be too much for me at night, I'll quit my day job and do this during the daylight hours.

That or put the kids to work as glass cutters.

[Tin Can]

Fresh plates delivered today. I'll shoot and develop tonight.

Thanks for the quick turnaround!

[Tin Can]

I have excuses, but I am getting there. My first excuse is Kodak Liquid Quick Fix with Hardner. I mixed a Qt with distilled per instructions. My body instantly did not like this stuff. The smell was horrible, the touch is very bad. I got a rash from one drop. Never had that reaction before. I will go back to TF5 immediately.

Which threw off my night of developing. I shot 2, same exposure at f5.6 and f22. Strobes. All good. But I put the first plate in the soup face down. It has damaged emulsion. My fault. Not scanned.

This one I got it face up but short washed again as I was annoyed. Kodak QF needs a long wash is almost binds to the glass, noticeably gummy? Or oily? Looked scummy. TF5 never looks like that. But as i say I short washed out of haste. Maybe a long wash would show a lot less fixer marks on the glass, as you can see in the scan.

I shot old buddy Elwood with a black background to eliminate edge issues. So there are none. Try again tomorrow.


Batch 2 #1 by moe.randy, on Flickr