Washing Prints

[simonhall]

Originally Posted by davidgc

I bit the bullet and bought a second hand nova washmaster II, not quite the bargain of £65, but as I bought it at the same time I got my Durst L1200 I consider it a bargain by only having to collect from one location - so I keep telling myself anyway ...

At the moment I am only tending to mix D76 !! I am very much at the stage where I keep to manufacturers recommendations.

For non hypo clear compartments in washers can I just ask should the hypo clear be in its own tray, that is, remove and return the print to the washer before/after the hypo clear ?
Should you agitate and how long does one 'tray' of hypo clear last (I think I recall it can do something like 50 number 8x10's ) ?

David

Yes, give the Hypo-clear it's own tray. They way I have it set up is I have a tray which is collecting water from the print washers outlet pipe. I do my initial rinse in this tray. It is then transferred to the hypo-clear and agitated occasionally. Then on to the print washer. I aim for about 10 minutes in hypo-clear and try to give it a few agitations during this time. I'm sure it would be quicker if I agitated more frequently but I'm normally trying to get on with the next print, so a prod every minute or two seems to suffice.

I've not bothered to venture in to mixing my own developers yet, but if you are already mixing D76 then you've got sodium sulphite already. That is a perfectly good hypo-clearing bath on its own. The rest of the chemicals cost me £10-£12 from ebay and I've got enough to last me the rest of my life I would have thought. They are only really necessary if you get precipitant when using straight sodium sulphite.

[davidgc]

Originally Posted by simonhall

I've not bothered to venture in to mixing my own developers yet, but if you are already mixing D76 then you've got sodium sulphite already. That is a perfectly good hypo-clearing bath on its own. The rest of the chemicals cost me £10-£12 from ebay and I've got enough to last me the rest of my life I would have thought. They are only really necessary if you get precipitant when using straight sodium sulphite.

Thanks Simon, when I said 'mixing' D76, I just meant adding the water ...

[richardw]

Makes any large tray into a perfect print washer. It syphons out the contaminated water at the bottom of the water column and replenishes with fresh water at the top. I have prints so washed from forty years ago and they are still as bright and clean as on day one.

richard