Interesting idea-a hand held clothes steamer. That is worth trying I think.Originally Posted by StoneNYC
Interesting idea-a hand held clothes steamer. That is worth trying I think.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
Second on using a steamer with a drying cabinet. First run the HEPA filter for the room it is in so you don't stir up much dust putting the negatives inside. Use the steamer inside for a minute or two so you have a steam cloud. Hang the negatives out of the foto-flo in the steamy air and close it. A few hours to a day later you should have dry, clean negatives. Having a cabinet that is a bit oversized is a plus so you don't have to move around too much while hanging the negs.
Got onto the steam cabinet after using the tub and shower in an enclosed bathroom for awhile. Somehow kids don't understand not being able to use the bathroom because of negatives hanging in the shower.
Since going to the steamer/shower steam system I have never had problems from airborne dust - just waterborne at times even with a 5 micron double water filter.
Hope it works.
They have handheld ones that range from $40-$75 like this one.
http://m.kohls.com/product/prd-20168...FZZCNwodO0MBkw
But you might find them weak, might want to go a little more for one in the $150 range like this.
http://www.target.com/p/mcculloch-he...A&gclsrc=aw.ds
I've no practical experience with either, except that when working in the movie industry, the wardrobe people preferred the kind with the hose attachment as they were a bit more powerful. Film and clothing is not the same of course, but the hose type may produce more steam, not sure.
Good luck!
Can anyone recommend a small hand held steamer? I only need it for this purpose-rather not spend $150 unless I can help it.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
When I use a bathroom for negative development (my set-up in Europe), I vacuum, mop and wipe down all the floors and walls about an hour before processing, then (as Stone and others) run the hot water to steam the room up. After things have settled down, I process. Drying is done on a retractable clothesline over the tub. Sheet film gets a final rinse in distilled water and PhotoFlo, then gets gently squeegeed through clean index and middle fingers (two swipes to get the whole surface) and hung by a corner to dry. I rarely have dust with this set-up.
In the States I have a new dedicated darkroom. The door is sealed and light tight, a ventilation system collects air from along the back edge of the sink and exhausts it to outside. Intake air is through two 12"x12" light-tight vents that are filtered, so, except for me going in and out, the only air that comes in is filtered. After a good mop and wipe-down, I don't have much of a dust problem at all. Still, when developing negs, I run the hot water and steam up the whole 10-foot-square room a bit. Film gets the same treatment as above and is hung on a retractable clothesline over the sink. Again, rarely a dust problem.
I think there are a couple of key practices here: first, don't stir things up immediately before processing (my cleaning and wipe-downs are always at least an hour before processing and I never sweep; that just stirs up dust). And try to keep dust and dirt out of your processing area. Second, raise the humidity in the drying environment before processing to settle airborne dust. Third, if you can swing it, some kind of filtration can only improve the situation. However, if there's lots of airflow, I'd turn it off some time before processing film.
If I were you, I'd look for low-hanging fruit in this basket and see what you can easily do right away. Try it and see if it solves your problem. If not, you can take more drastic measures.
As for dust on negatives during enlarging: I've found that a soft camel's hair brush can really help. For the most stubborn, glued-on specks I'll resort to a micro-fiber cloth or even a scalpel point under 10x magnification to dislodge the dust (I don't touch the neg, just the dust).
Also, it's amazing to me how much dust gets on the negative when enlarging, even in the fairly clean environment I've described. I check in glancing light and blow or brush the visible specks away. Then I check the negative again as it's sitting in the carrier with the enlarger light on. It's amazing how often I have to remove and re-clean the neg. Sometimes dust will settle on the neg between prints and I'll have to clean again. Extra care at this stage of the game helps minimize spotting.
Best,
Doremus
Randy why do you say "cold steam for my climate".
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
I thought it was hot. If not, you could use a vaporizer, humidifier, or a hot plate and tea kettle.
Tin Can
Well, there was more to it than just water treatment for me. I found a nice decrease in spots from going to one-shot developer use. But the biggest gain was from something no one talks about. And that was from moving to one-shot fixer. Probably 30 percent of my spots were tiny metallic silver deposits and other junk from reusing fixer (I had thought all the process induced crud washed off the film, but challenging preconceived notions is why we run experiments). Now I just mix fixer from concentrate when I need it (no stock solution), use it, and into the bucket.
I can hear you laughing from here. I thought it was crazy myself. But... it's reproducible for me.
One of the other things that really helped, was cleaning the ceiling. Dust sticks to ceilings and walls. At least until the charges equalize...
When my entire darkroom was spotless, and I used one-shot chemistry end to end, and all water (any that touched my film or my Jobo 3010 tank, so all developer and fixer makeup water, and all rinse water, even cleanup water) was steam distilled (I got it down to about six liters / 10 5x4 sheets, or about $1.5 USD, which beats the heck out of couple of hours spotting), I was able to knock down my dust problem by better than 90%. But I've never gotten it to zero -- I've pulled some seriously clean sheets, but not quite perfect. Yet.
But since you're asking only about drying, I found that cleaning my darkroom to near spotlessness, and running an electrostatic airfilter 24/7, sealing it up (door, light switches, outlets, etc.), basically turning it into a giant film drying cabinet, made about a 20% improvement for me. That's when I started working on the rest of the process.
Replacing my 10 micron in-line filtered water with steam distilled was good for another 5%, maybe as much as 10%. And I've got excellent city water here -- if you drink bottled water under the Aquafina name, it could be right out of the city of Raleigh treatment plant. But the pipes that water runs through to get to my house... some are at least 60 years old now.
As you increase your enlargement size, you decrease the size of the spots on your negative that are visible in the final print. I'm just saying that a 12x enlargement shows some amazingly small negative spots.
This is what you're up against. Think of it as a challenge.
Bruce Watson
I never pour fixer(only used 2x if doing another run right after the first, otherwise it gets tossed) straight back into the bottle. I use those single-shot coffee filters to filter our particulate.
I use distilled water to mix developer, final rinse(color) & photo flo(bw). Regular wash water is straight out of the tap.
-Dan
Stone Photo Gear
https://www.stonephotogear.com/
Interesting. I do use one shot developer (D-23 or Pyrocat)-in distilled water, no stop-just distilled water, but I do reuse fixer-one session only.Well, there was more to it than just water treatment for me. I found a nice decrease in spots from going to one-shot developer use. But the biggest gain was from something no one talks about. And that was from moving to one-shot fixer. Probably 30 percent of my spots were tiny metallic silver deposits and other junk from reusing fixer (I had thought all the process induced crud washed off the film, but challenging preconceived notions is why we run experiments). Now I just mix fixer from concentrate when I need it (no stock solution), use it, and into the bucket.
I can hear you laughing from here. I thought it was crazy myself. But... it's reproducible for me.
One of the other things that really helped, was cleaning the ceiling. Dust sticks to ceilings and walls. At least until the charges equalize...
When my entire darkroom was spotless, and I used one-shot chemistry end to end, and all water (any that touched my film or my Jobo 3010 tank, so all developer and fixer makeup water, and all rinse water, even cleanup water) was steam distilled (I got it down to about six liters / 10 5x4 sheets, or about $1.5 USD, which beats the heck out of couple of hours spotting), I was able to knock down my dust problem by better than 90%. But I've never gotten it to zero -- I've pulled some seriously clean sheets, but not quite perfect. Yet.
But since you're asking only about drying, I found that cleaning my darkroom to near spotlessness, and running an electrostatic airfilter 24/7, sealing it up (door, light switches, outlets, etc.), basically turning it into a giant film drying cabinet, made about a 20% improvement for me. That's when I started working on the rest of the process.
Replacing my 10 micron in-line filtered water with steam distilled was good for another 5%, maybe as much as 10%. And I've got excellent city water here -- if you drink bottled water under the Aquafina name, it could be right out of the city of Raleigh treatment plant. But the pipes that water runs through to get to my house... some are at least 60 years old now.
As you increase your enlargement size, you decrease the size of the spots on your negative that are visible in the final print. I'm just saying that a 12x enlargement shows some amazingly small negative spots.
This is what you're up against. Think of it as a challenge.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks