Make a cement vault.
Make a cement vault.
I have always wondered how being 'see-thru' improved the washing, but perhaps it makes it easier to discover the quality of the water flow-pattern using the ink trick.
My only positive idea is wondering about re-purposing water-tanks made for other (plumbing) purposes and hence only needing to make the support frame and separators, which are relatively low-load components. Going further, why do the prints even have to be vertical? That story about fixer-bearing wash-water being heavy and sinking to the bottom of the tank was found to be imaginary years ago wasn't it? And anyway, that is what the dividers plus water-flow seeks to circulate out of the tank. A large flat 'tray', say eighteen inches deep, is a lot easier to homebuild than some high-strength acrylic vertical system surely -- though it would use more ground area I suppose.
EDIT: For clarity, the water-flow will be constrained by the divider system making the 'pockets', while the print would need to be supported on a nylon(?) mesh fixed inside each pocket (like a drying-screen supports a print), with sufficient clearance between mesh and pocket to allow water to flow slowly around the print. Un/loading prints could be done from an empty washer, or the system of dividers could stack vertically with a few tabs to align the structure with the water nozzles.
Hi Bob
Im thinking of what the guy in NY State (fine art photo supply, defender photo supply ) used to sell kits for, it was a fish tank that had 2 pvc tubes
and plexi sheets that slide in the pvc tubes as separators, fill it up, let stuff soak then drain it and repeat
might not even have to be huge, maybe narrow would work...
plas-tech in Woodbridge, Ontario might be able to custom make you a tank. I don't know who they are
but they came up when I googled "plastic fabricators Toronto" and judging by their website they seem legit..
our local fabricator closed shop during covid or I'd give you his credentials, he was like maholy nagy, the real deal ...
good luck
John
Gosh, Interneg, I've tooled up so many shops myself I can't possibly remember them all. There are all kinds of routes to working with acrylic, depending on budget and scale of activity. Our own shop facility, where I worked, took up an entire city block. Left over spaces were leased out to cabinet shops as well as a plastic and signage fabricator. We had 440V 3-phase incoming voltage in that building; 4 gauge wiring. But just the carbide to any programmable system would cost more than what Bob is likely to spend for his entire project. Simple cutting and solvent welding appropriate to a washing device doesn't need to go that far; but if it's locally available, why not? - actually, there are often stiff set-up fees for one-offs when highly automated equipment is used, so something less elaborate is often more realistic.
The Clyde Butcher video I recently saw was more recent and featured his assistant doing the silver printing and using a floor vertical washer.
Bob, it occurs to me perhaps you don't need dividers/compartments. Just thinking out loud but for paper that large wouldn't it possibly be safer to suspend the prints in the washer from the top anyway (ie hang them with clips or whatever)? In which case you just have some sort of rods along the top of the tank and you attach the prints to clips hanging from the rods. Unless you have some kind of too-wild current going on, the prints should remain separated just fine as long as there is a little space between them.
Of course this wouldn't work if you don't have an expendable paper edge to clip to.
And that the weight of the print doesn't cause stretching.....
How many of these prints do you make at a time? My guess is: not too many.
To conserve water, how about making rigid trays? To keep the print off of the bottom, you could put in window screens, route a texture in the bottom of the tray, put epoxy or silicone dots on the bottom, or..... You could build a frame to hold multiple trays, one above the other. Put in a drain valve at one end, and slop the trays slightly towards the drain. Put water in the tray. Put the print face up in the tray. Now, put another tray on top.... This way, you can get each of the prints soaking in water. Once all the prints are in, drain each of the tanks and replace the water, kinda like the Ilford method for washing film. I expect this method could be much more water efficient than using a traditional vertical washer. When you're not using it, you could break it down and store the trays vertically to save space.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
Very observant thought, rods with clips would work very well as you suggest, I will admit I like the idea of six slot but yes a open box with flowing water and bottom release with rods would indeed work , I think paper handling would be the only issue, I hang prints in large gumbichromate now with clips on wire now and it can get clumsy or HANDSY which can maybe harm the paper.
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