Questions about dry pressing

fritzsiepen · 2009-03-17T19:17:33+00:00

Hallo ! Habe mir letztens bei Ebay ne 30x40 Trockenpresse gekauft. Tücher waren recht braun. Hab sie aber in Waschmittel (mit Enzymen) eingeweicht und dann...

fritzsiepen

Hello! I recently bought a 30x40 dry press on eBay. The cloths were quite brown. I soaked them in detergent (with enzymes) and then boiled them. They did get a bit cleaner. I’m just wondering now whether the remaining dirt could still damage my prints?! Could it be that the paper has been discoloured by cigarette smoke? The paper is uniformly darker, even on the first few. 2nd question: I’ve just dried some prints (Fomabrom, 18x24, 180g I think); they were only damp, not wet, but still stuck a bit. They haven’t come out perfectly flat, so I now have to weigh them down in a book. Is that normal, or should the prints always come out ready for framing? (I dried them on full heat) I hope someone reads this long text :rolleyes: Thanks in advance for your replies! Fritz

Otto

I’ve just dried some prints (Fomabrom, 18x24, 180g I think); they were only damp, not wet anymore, but still a bit sticky. They haven’t come out perfectly flat, so I now have to weigh them down in a book. Is that normal, or should the prints always come out ready to frame? (I dried them on full heat)

There is an important note on this here: http://www.fotolaborforum.eu/index.php?showtopic=2038 The paper is apparently not suitable for hot drying. Best regards, Otto!

MirkoBoeddecker

Hi Fritz, Is the paper unevenly curved across the entire surface, or has it become severely wavy at the edges? Generally speaking, you need to find the right balance between the press temperature and the paper. We set ours to 80 degrees for MCC and Ilford papers, and to around 65–70 degrees for Vario Classic. Foma tends to stick to the cloth too often (see Otto’s comment) – we dry it overnight on a stretcher frame with fly-screen mesh and then press it the next day (once dry) at full power (similar to ironing). Best regards, Mirko

fritzsiepen

Exactly, the paper was curled at the edges. I’ll give that a go – pressing at full power with dry paper! But you have to mount it straight away afterwards, don’t you? It’ll surely curl up again quickly, won’t it? I’ve now built myself a temperature control system using a dimmer switch; maybe I’ll get better results with that... By the way, the dimmer works well; I’ve also connected a voltmeter in series so I can read the voltage, which is linked to the temperature. Thanks! Fritz