[jgmotamedi]

While the tent looks like a great idea, I think the fatal flaw is that you would have to be in there with the chemicals, no? The idea of a fumehood is that only your gloved hands are exposed to the chemicals, not your eyes, nose, or mouth.

So, can you provide a little more details on your process? Are you planning on using mercury in there? Diluting your bromine in there? If so, no this won’t work. If you are going to use this for iodine only it would be ok, but with caveats.

The fan would probably work fine, just make sure it is powerful enough and inspect it regularly for corrosion. The activated charcoal is, I think, a waste of money. Venting outside is the best way of dealing with these fumes. Bromine and iodine react so quickly that in the quantities we are using (unless you spill!) they are effectively inert once they hit the outside air. Mercury is more of a concern, but again in the small quantities we are using the main concern is to keep it away from your (and your neighbors’) lungs. Do not use the charcoal filter inside for mercury, as they have no end-of-life indicator, and you can easily poison yourself.

[jgmotamedi]

One more observation: It is very difficult to locate the “login,” eventually I managed to login through the “Site Admin” button on the bottom right, but it is not immediately clear nor it is clear how you register to use this forum. Perhaps this should be made clearer with a login and register button on top?

[jgmotamedi]

Try something less specific and more descriptive; Wooden box with glass tray. Using the word Daguerreotype invites further inquiry, and an internet search is the last thing you want a customs agent doing.

[jgmotamedi]

As an addendum, I was a little disappointed in the new forum software because I did not see a “new posts,” but realized that the “Forums” menu (up top, next to “Contemporary Daguerreotypes”) has a “views” submenu which allows “latests topics” to be selected.

http://www.cdags.org/forums/view/latest-topics/

[jgmotamedi]

Thanks for the work!

[jgmotamedi]

I suppose PFA would be fine for mercury, but I haven't really thought about it. I just use a glass bottle (the kind with the plastic "shatter proof" coating on the outside) with a PTFE-lined cap, and some parafilm around the lid inside a cooler. Anyhow, like you I keep all of my chemicals outside of my house. I can't see any reason to bring them inside, even if they were perfectly sealed.

[jgmotamedi]

Andy,

I have had about 10ml of bromine in a 30ml PFA vial from Savillex for about 3 years, and see nearly no sign of leakage. There is a tiny bit of red stain on the Teflon tape I use around the lid, but I think this is from bromine on the outside of the threads or perhaps migrating down the treads. I use PFA vials (for bromine) and jars (for iodine) from Savillex, rather than bottles. I think the vials and jars are thicker than the bottles, and who needs 250ml of bromine?

[jgmotamedi]

I have been very pleased with the PFA bottles and vials which I have purchased from Savillex for Bromine.

[jgmotamedi]

Ty,

If you want to make high-quality boxes, I honestly don’t think you have much choice but use glass, especially if you are selling to people who are also using bromine. The problem with using wood isn’t only that the chemicals will eventually destroy it, but that hard wood simply doesn’t have a tight enough grain structure to prevent the fumes from escaping.

One option for you would be to ask the customer to do their own grinding. It takes a while, but anyone can do it.

jason

[jgmotamedi]

I have the Caswell chemicals, and have had slight success with them. After many hours of effort I finally started getting acceptable plates, but not as good as commercially plated ones. I never managed to get the same polish on my home-brew plates. Regardless of how well I polished the base metal (both copper and brass) my plates were pretty rough when they came out of the bath. While their chemicals may be good, Caswell did not provide me with good support, and their forum is pretty useless.

Cyanide baths are available for purchase through Shor in the US, and other places. Going through old plating manuals (Google books) will provide some guidance on how to create your own silver cyanide bath from sodium or potassium cyanide and silver oxide, but the process seemed very complex (especially starting from silver nitrate) and extremely dangerous.

Plating is an art form as complex as making daguerreotypes. I decided to put the chemicals down for the moment and spend my limited free time making images, not plates. But of course, if you can’t get plates, you have to make them…

[jgmotamedi]

I fumed the plates about a week before I took the shots.

I know little about the cold mercury process, but I suspect that your problem is probably largely a result of fuming too long before development. Try to fume no less than an hour or two before exposure.

[jgmotamedi]

Thanks for arguing!

You have proposed an interesting experiment Ken, I will try it an let you know how it works with Becquerel plates, or we can try it when we meet up. In any case, Becquerel plates seem to me to be much more fragile than mercury developed plates. It is often hard to remove all traces of an exposure on a mercury developed plate. It is much easier to do so with a Becquerel plate. In fact, I have watched as a student once washed the image off the surface of a plate with a stream of water.

[jgmotamedi]

Really? No one is going to argue with me?

[jgmotamedi]

I have come to doubt the worth of gilding in Becquerel plates. Originally I gilded my Becquerel plates because everyone else told me it was worthwhile, and added to the beauty and durability of the plates. However, looking at the hundred+ Becquerel plates I have made in the past years, I see that those which I did not gild are generally more neutral and tend to have better tonality. Those which I gilded tend to be too blue or yellow or even green, and seem to be more contrasty. Perhaps it is just a skewed sample, but my current prejudice is to skip gilding for Becquerel plates. If properly mounted I don’t see why they wouldn’t last as long as a gilded plate. Really the main problem with not gilded plates in my view is that they are much harder to dry without marks. A drying agent helps, but it is still a challenge.

Note that this does NOT apply to mercury plates; Gilding appreciably improves the appearance of mercury developed plates.

I am sure that others will disagree.

[jgmotamedi]

All that said, I imagine that today’s “industrial” grade chemicals are as pure or purer than those typically used 170 years ago. Many of us use chemicals from dubious sources: my iodine is from ebay, mercury was given to me by a friend who found it stored in a propane tank with a bolt and electrical tape securing it, and I make my own bromine. So, chances are what ever you get will be good enough.

Others may disagree…

[jgmotamedi]

When I ordered bromine in Mexico it came through the US, so the ACS grade may be appropriate in Guatemala also. I was able to get mercury and iodine via a local chemical supply, I never knew what the grade was on those. I also saw both mercury and iodine in a local botánica.

[jgmotamedi]

If you want a specific answer, you need to give us more information. We can’t divine from your username where you are located.

[jgmotamedi]

For the iodine, bromine and mercury ACS grade should be more then adequate.

[jgmotamedi]

It may be worthwhile identifying exactly what they are, as some early image technologies need to be stored in special ways. If there is an art museum or better yet a history museum with a good archive near by call and ask to speak with the photo-curator. Perhaps you can interest her or him enough to look at the images, identify them, and then suggest ways of storing them. In any case, keep them out of direct sunlight until you know exactly what they are, and how to treat them. Good luck!

[jgmotamedi]

Ty Guillory was making them a few months back

http://www.tyguillory.com/

[jgmotamedi]

Great images, but not they are not Daguerreotypes. Probably Calotypes or some other sort of paper negatives,

[jgmotamedi]

I will see if I can find my notes on programming the controller. I know I wrote down all my settings in a notebook, but that was before the move, and I haven’t seen the notebook recently.

[jgmotamedi]

With the CN7533 you should be able to drive a 3″ heater using the internal relay. I made a mistake and ordered the CN7523 and was forced to use an external relay. Not a big deal, I picked one up at Radio Shack for $4.

I have been very happy with my system, it keeps the mercury within .2*C in the autotune mode. It took me a while to figure out the initial programing, the manual was pretty confusing and largely inadequate, but with some help I managed to set it up.

[jgmotamedi]

I use the grounded version of the K-style thermocouple from Omega (TJ36-CPSS-18G-6-SB), and it works very well. I had a conversation with an electronics engineer before buying it, and decided on the grounded version, but can’t recall why.

[jgmotamedi]

Sorry, forgot to mention that sales outside of the US will not be possible with these badges.

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