drying/cleaning negs after wet mounting

[nelson_chan]

Hello,

I plan to wet mount soon, but wanted to know how people are drying and/or cleaning their negs after wet mounting. I was told that hang drying was sufficient enough, but I am worried about dust. Can anyone share their methods?

Thanks in advanced.

[Bruce Watson]

I plan to wet mount soon, but wanted to know how people are drying and/or cleaning their negs after wet mounting. I was told that hang drying was sufficient enough, but I am worried about dust. Can anyone share their methods?

After mounting, I clean the film with film cleaner. Quick, easy, and relatively painless.

Since the major fluids for fluid mounting (Prazio/SDS, Kami) are Naptha based and contains no water, your film isn't actually wet. That is, the emulsion isn't swelled, soft, and sticky from absorbing water. So the film isn't drying in the sense that it does after developing; all that's happen is the mounting fluid is evaporating off. Because of this I doubt that dust will be a problem.

I have some problems with the hang-until-evaporated method though. Sometimes this leaves a residue on the film so you have to go back and use a film cleaner anyway. It takes too long. And while it's hanging it gets in the way -- and knocking it loose so it ends up on the floor will cause a dust problem. I want to finish the tear down and go on to other things. But that's probably just me -- clearly YMMV.

[Peter De Smidt]

Bruce is right about the residue. I use film cleaner and scanner wipes to clean the film. Be very gentle. (No scrubbing!) I then hang the film to completely dry using a line and metal alligator clips. I bought some test leads from Radio shack and cut the alligator clips off. They're small, strong, and they haven't corroded in a decade of darkroom and lightroom work.