[Blake]

This weekend, I made my second ever attempt at a bdag.

Details:
Size: Quarter plate
Fumed for the first reddish/purple hue
Shade on a sunny day
Exposure: 1 min 50 sec
Lens: Dallmeyer Pentac 8″ f/2.9
Development: 1.5 hours

I need to do a better job of drying the plate as it left a stain where the water dried.

My first attempt was last weekend, and I overexposed that plate, but I did get an image and could see where I needed to make other improvements. I am really glad to be able to get an image at this point with my second ever attempt.

Here is the image:

Also, here is the fuming box I built. This is my first attempt. I may build another one later on. I would probably only do a max of 5×7 on this, but I was originally going to shoot for whole plate. The insert is for two quarter plates. The seal is made using PTFE (teflon) glued to the bottom of the wood over a pyrex baking dish. The wood for the slide is recycled from a wine crate (hence the graphics on it).

Thank you to everyone who helped out with advice. I will hopefully keep trying over time and attempt to get better at it.

-Blake

[Blake]

NWG,

Thanks for the info!

The plater I am using is Leonard Plating Company. The owner said they get items sent to them from around the world (he didn’t quite know why), but they seem to do a fair amount of work from outside of Nashville, TN.

http://www.leonardplatingcompany.com/

Granted, I did give them mirror finished stainless steel to being with, but the silver layer was mirror finished and at this point I will be doing the final buffing to get rid of the micro-scratches. Based on what I have read in the forums, I have purchased a Bosch ROS with pads, lampblack and powdered rogue to do that with.

Slowly but surely making progress on my iodine fuming box as well. Need to find some time this weekend to get it closer to completion.

-Blake

[Blake]

By the way…how does one not let a plate get hot when developing beneath rubylith under the sunlight?

-Blake

[Blake]

Thanks, Nate! Great info!

I got my silver plated plates back the other day, and they look really good. Truly a mirror finish. There are some slight scratches in the surface from just being rubbed by their paper holders, but I will *probably* be able to get those out with velvet. At least one of the plates hardly has any scratches at all. Time will tell, but I have been impressed with this particular silver-plater.

A few more items left before I start testing:

1) Build the iodine fuming box. I think I am ready to get started. Should hopefully have this built in a few weeks. It won’t be anything impressive, but I hope it will do the job.
2) Waiting on a quarter-plate plate holder. I could have probably built this myself, but I went with the guy that built my current wet-plate plate back for my Century Studio camera.
3) Some velvet to use in my final polishing
4) Make some type of polishing block to hold the plates while polishing.

Otherwise, I already have:
-Dallmeyer Pentac f/2.9 lens (something faster than my older, f/8 lens I normally use)
-Silver plated quarter-plates
-A few things to build the fuming box (pyrex baking dishes, ptfe sheets, wood, etc)
-Iodine
-Sodium thiosulfate and sodium sulfite for the fixer
-Rubylith sheets
-Sunlight and warmer weather will be later at this point (if that groundhog is to be believed)

Blake

[Blake]

Just an update. For my intial plates, I am going to use mirror polished stainless steel. I was able to get a small scrap piece for free from a friend who works in a lot of metals. I was able to cut it into 5 quarter plate pieces and dropped them off to the local silver-plater yesterday. I should have about $9 in each plate.

I hope to start building the iodine fuming box very soon. Will be building it around pyrex baking dishes. I have ordered some Teflon sheets (as recommended on other parts of the forum), but I still don’t know if I will use glass or wood covered teflon for the slide. The overall design is currently in the air as well. Either way, I recently bought a router table and will be experimenting.

I have rubylith, and I need to order some sodium sulfite (already have sodium thiosulfate). I will get iodine off of eBay as suggested.

Maybe in a few short months I can attempt to make my first b-dag.

I probably will not even attempt the mercurial method until I find a good fuming hood and can have an exterior building to install it in.

-Blake

[Blake]

Bing,

I am where you were at two years ago. Can you give any updates since the beginning of the year? How is the box holding up?

Also, how did you attach the teflon to the wood? Is that also holding up well?

Thanks!
Blake

[Blake]

I just saw this thread and thought I would post a follow-up to the last post. I had actually reached out to Ty Guillory the other day, and he is not currently making fuming boxes.

-Blake

[Blake]

As to the iodine, what type is the best to use specifically? I have found various types and descriptions. I am assuming Elemental Iodine Crystals, but there could be differing options there?

For example:
Reagent Grade
http://www.carolina.com/catalog/detail.jsp?prodId=868984&s_cid=ppc_gl_products&gclid=COCF1a3HqLsCFQbl7AodTH0A1Q

Or

ACS Grade
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-g-3-55-oz-pure-elemental-iodine-crystals-ACS-grade-/271308876719?_trksid=p2054897.l4276

or even this (price seems higher per gram):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250g-8-8oz-ACS-grade-pure-elemental-iodine-crystals-/281224529312?_trksid=p2054897.l4276

Thanks again!

[Blake]

Thank you for the excellent response. I have been reading several of the online how-to guides and printed them off. I am going to start sourcing more materials and the chemicals I do not already have too.

As far as the iodine goes, do you typically store your iodine in the fuming box, or do you remove it and store it in its bottle after each use?

And, what does gilding really do? Can an image be protected just as well behind a sealed mat and glass without gilding?

Thanks again!
-Blake

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