Camera Dry Cabinet for drying paper

[KeithJones]

As some of you may be aware humidity which is present when coated paper for chrysotypes is drying has a strong influence on the colours produced in the final print. At present I always use silicon beads in my "humidity chamber" (or cat litter tray as it is commonly known) to take the RH down and get a good range using Fabriano Artistico paper but testing other papers does not give split tones - just very strong magenta. Due to this was musing about the possibility of buying a cheap humidity cabinet and came across a number of reasonably priced camera/lens dry cabinets. The downside is that they all look to have glass doors which raises a few questions which I am hoping others may be able to answer:

Apart from the glass doors are these cabinets light tight?

If I covered the glass door with a lightproof film then would this affect the operation of the unit?

Hopefully someone has been through a similar experience and can answer these questions.

[KeithJones]

In the spirit of being a FADU pioneer I decided to buy one of these.

To answer my own questions:

Yes, it is light tight.

Covering the door (with UV blocking film, in my case) does not affect the operation of the unit.

[Martin Aislabie]

Hi Keith

I'm curious to know how it works ?

Martin

[KeithJones]

Hello Martin

I will be trying a piece of Fabriano Roma, early next week. When I tried this paper using silica beads to control the RH (about 20%) then the result was that the split tones were very muted. I will try a piece at 40% and report back on the result.

[KeithJones]

I can confirm that this approach works. The only issue is that the footprint of the cabinet is small only allowing for one 8x10 print. I could dismantle the perltier unit it uses and move it to a wider but lower cabinet but, for now, I will just use it for the smaller prints.