FB Printing Papers and Curling

[Pieter]

if you have some cash or are lucky to find one in a junk store, look for a nipping press. you might find a library going all digital getting rid of one. when the prints are 90-95% dry put them between clean matboard for a little while in the nipping press
they'll be flat soon after.

You might find one at a university art department, or even new they can be reasonably priced. They just usually aren't big enough for anything more than 8x10, less likely 11x14.

[jnantz]

You might find one at a university art department, or even new they can be reasonably priced. They just usually aren't big enough for anything more than 8x10, less likely 11x14.

I was talking to a friend recently ( in person, not digitally ) and he told me that he recently went to a large university library and it had no books. It might be too late to visit a university !

I apprenticed with a bookbinder years ago and he had a giant one, cast iron, could easily handle a 20x24 print. he retired a guy came and bought his business. The press was probably disassembled ( big screws )so it could be transported it to his shoppe or he might have needed a crane..
make shift not be hard to make with formica countertop and something heavy like a wheel or 2nd/3rd pi3ce of formica countertop ( so 3 -4 in all ). he always had slabs of the laminated ww2 plane windshield he was shot down in being used as deadweight on top of masonite or something when he was flattening small stuff.

[ASA1000]

I struggled looking for the right word. It's not really damp, it's drier than damp.....If you slide a dry finger across the emulsion of a dry print then maybe it's the next perceptible point of 'less dry'
You get the idea! It takes a little experimentation. And also, the bottom and cover-sheets in the press are important. I am using a 16x20 watercolor paper for that. it's archival and I just have to think it wicks any moisture, that's why I open the press at 45 sec. and just lightly 'float' the paper to air out any moisture in the process. Two sheets above, one sheet below. There are probably other ways, but look to the 'no-so-dry' end of the spectrum for the answer.
The stack of out prints in the background has been under 2 boxes of negatives for weight

[ASA1000]

I like glass top and Botton. 1/4 or 3/8-inch tempered (or laminated - how cool was that windshield!) . You have to be able to keep the surfaces absolutely clean, otherwise a tiny grain of dust will get embedded in the emulsion and wind up looking like a meteorite crater! Same goes for the press surfaces.

[ASA1000]

I was talking to a friend recently ( in person, not digitally ) and he told me that he recently went to a large university library and it had no books. It might be too late to visit a university !

I apprenticed with a bookbinder years ago and he had a giant one, cast iron, could easily handle a 20x24 print. he retired a guy came and bought his business. The press was probably disassembled ( big screws )so it could be transported it to his shoppe or he might have needed a crane..
make shift not be hard to make with formica countertop and something heavy like a wheel or 2nd/3rd pi3ce of formica countertop ( so 3 -4 in all ). he always had slabs of the laminated ww2 plane windshield he was shot down in being used as deadweight on top of masonite or something when he was flattening small stuff.

I like glass top and Botton. 1/4 or 3/8-inch tempered (or laminated - how cool was that windshield!) . You have to be able to keep the surfaces absolutely clean, otherwise a tiny grain of dust will get embedded in the emulsion and wind up looking like a meteorite crater! Same goes for the press surfaces.

[Pieter]

I was talking to a friend recently ( in person, not digitally ) and he told me that he recently went to a large university library and it had no books. It might be too late to visit a university !

I apprenticed with a bookbinder years ago and he had a giant one, cast iron, could easily handle a 20x24 print. he retired a guy came and bought his business. The press was probably disassembled ( big screws )so it could be transported it to his shoppe or he might have needed a crane..
make shift not be hard to make with formica countertop and something heavy like a wheel or 2nd/3rd pi3ce of formica countertop ( so 3 -4 in all ). he always had slabs of the laminated ww2 plane windshield he was shot down in being used as deadweight on top of masonite or something when he was flattening small stuff.

[Pieter]

I was talking to a friend recently ( in person, not digitally ) and he told me that he recently went to a large university library and it had no books. It might be too late to visit a university !

I apprenticed with a bookbinder years ago and he had a giant one, cast iron, could easily handle a 20x24 print. he retired a guy came and bought his business. The press was probably disassembled ( big screws )so it could be transported it to his shoppe or he might have needed a crane..
make shift not be hard to make with formica countertop and something heavy like a wheel or 2nd/3rd pi3ce of formica countertop ( so 3 -4 in all ). he always had slabs of the laminated ww2 plane windshield he was shot down in being used as deadweight on top of masonite or something when he was flattening small stuff.

My thought on the university was in the art department, where bookmaking and bookbinding might be taught, not the library.

[popdoc]

I went to the local stone countertop dealer and got some of their “leftovers” to flatten my fiber prints. The rectangles from cutting the holes for sinks are perfect. I even used epoxy to glue handles on to the slabs to make handling a breeze…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[phdgent]

After gently wiping off the excess of the final Sistan bath (ADOX Adostab now) with a microfibre cloth from the emulsion side while the print is laying on a thick towel, I let the prints dry, upside down, on household fibreglass insect screens at room temperature for as long it takes to get them thoroughly dry.
Then I lay them, upside down and stacked by about 12 sheets at once, under a pile of heavy marble tiles I recovered from dump container on a construction site (for free) for at least 2 days.

The prints are still somewhat undulated but that is so typically tactile for fibre prints so I leave it like that.

Anyway, the undulating reaction on the environmental atmosphere (moister) of the paper proves that the (natural-) materials, like rag and cotton, have still some life left in it, just like wood...

[ASA1000]

The thing about the new Ilford MGFB paper is the emulsion is very tough. Actually it's 3 different layers and it will take two weeks in a tray before it softens enough to come off. Also the 8x10 paper curls on the 'long' side and the 11x14 paper curls on the 'short' side. So it's definitely something in that paper that makes it so sensitive to drying. I dont know about other papers but I do know the new Ilford is totally different than the old Gallery. Look at the stack of out-prints in my other post. There are just a few, in the middle that weren't dried right. They might as well be tin-types. They are never going to flatten ... not even with a Buick on top of them! I like the sink cut-outs for weight!