[phuphuphnik]

The box I posted is for iodine and bromine, hence the two sides. not seen are the glass containers that hold the halides.

[phuphuphnik]

I see what you mean. I’ll start from the top. There is a lid, the spring blade holds it in place. below that, the sliding part is like a drawer, it has a hole in it that the plate sits in. below this is the top of the glass or plastic tray that holds the iodine.

[phuphuphnik]

I am not sure what you mean. There is no contact of the iodine crystals to the plate. They are 3-4 cm (or more) from the plate, and the fumes act upon the plate. The spring you ask about may be to hold the plate in place.

[phuphuphnik]

I have been able to do lunar dags with Bequerel. I used an 8″ SC celesteron. it was a 7 minute exposure

[phuphuphnik]

I have had bad luck plating onto brass, I get a yellow scum on it. I’m using a cyanide bath for it. Graphic has 8×10, unpolished.
https://www.graphicchemical.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=263&cat=Economy+Copper+Plates+16+Guage+%28.064%29

[phuphuphnik]

Yes I do. My email address is phuphuphnik@gmail.com

cheers.

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

I should add, the unused plates are not pictured

[phuphuphnik]

squeak out an image, he says…

well done!

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

I posted this on the wet plate forum a while back, could help here.

I stumbled across several different kinds of holders recently, and took them apart. After several I found that the LISCO REGAL II has a solid septum. The Fidelity ones I looked at has 2 sheets of thin aluminum separated by a perforated piece of aluminum. The old Graflex were two sheets of thin Aluminum. The Liscos are the easiest to work with, as the 1/8″ (~3mm) is thick enough to cut out without flexing, or tearing.

I used a milling machine for one and a nibbler for another. A spiral bit like those found on a roto-zip work well too, but you need to go slow.

[phuphuphnik]

This is where I go:

https://www.graphicchemical.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?Search=Yes&sppp=25

It is not polished, but polishing copper isn’t too hard, I have my kids do it  😛

I get my Nitric acid there too.

chriso

 

[phuphuphnik]

I have some 4×5 once used plated plates I can send you. I should be able to shoot you three (I have a dozen, and am greedy) That’ll save you some steps if you’d like. They’ll need to be polished and re plated most likely.

PM me if you are interested.

cheers,

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

I can vouch for the Caswell products.

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

I use cyanide fixer for my collodion plates, and have been using the spent fixer to plate my dag plates as an experiment. It works fine, but I need to play with the current and voltage to get good results.

[phuphuphnik]

I would like these if still available.

PM sent.

cheers,

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

A rule of thumb I use is this as a starting point:

For Bequerel development, iodine to the second yellow almost rose. f/5.6 for one minute. So for f/8.8 I’d start at a minute and a half or even two minutes. The summer sun is better in northern latitudes where I am. Your mileage may vary, but there is where I would start.

cheers,

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

That would work well. My first was a Rolleichord and 2×2 plates. With that manual shutter you would be all set, if memory serves it is about f/6, right?

Good luck!

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

Thanks for the clarification, my chart was off. As I said, this is a *very* good price for the plates.

[phuphuphnik]

There would seem to be an economy in getting a 1/4 plate, and if one had the facilities, cutting it into 2 1/6th, well, slightly undersized 1/6th. it this correct?

Otherwise, yes, this is a *very* good price for clad plates. It sure beats buffing the images off all those old dags you got at the last flea market. (ducks and runs for cover)

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

You should be able to put it back in. Yeah, there is a lot of overhead with dags, which is why I don’t often gild. Why risk another 3+ hours of work to redo a plate if it is OK not gilt. I’ll check my notes on times in the sun when I get home. (I’m working the weekend)Too bad too, good shooting weather.

[phuphuphnik]

It looks like the plate needs more time in the hypo. Try 2nd cycle rose

[phuphuphnik]

Looks good. What is the f of your lens? I have discovered that iodised to the second yellow, f/5.6 at 1 minute in full sun is a good starting place. Fix until the plate is clear, could take a couple minutes. Are you developing in the sun, or under a lamp?

you’re almost there!

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

If you’re already doing wet plate, then you’ll have no trouble with the dags. It is an entirely different process, but you already have the patience. Dags travel better too. You can make up a bunch and take them out, no darkbox! Jason’s offer as a good one. I strongly recommend taking him up on it. Never pass up a chance to get plates! Plus making them up with someone else is always better. My 2 daughters help me with the polishing the time passes faster.

cheers,

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

Give the plates a good rinse with denatured alcohol before the final buff, that’ll go a long way towards getting the other stuff off. What colour are you sensitizing to? I like the second yellow myself. You are getting an image, so that is something!

The sun will give you faster results, but it can get just as hot as a lamp. I use a 500 watt light 10 inches above the plate with a squirrel cage fan blowing directly on the amberlith. It takes between 45 minutes and 6 hours to bring the image out for me. If you are guilding the image I would stop doing it at this point, it will serve no use until you get better images.

These look like they might of cooked, so your too hoe theory is valid.

Keep up the good work! you are almost there and the next 5 or so trys you’ll have it. One more bit of advice, if you don’t mind is only change one thing at a time. If you think it is the Methyl Hydrate, then change that and leave everything else alone, if you think it is the heat then cool the plate better. If you change more than one thing, you may not know which it was that was fouling the plate. This process takes longer, but you’ll learn more. (this is from the American Handbook of the Daguerreotype)

[phuphuphnik]

Where are you located?

chriso

[phuphuphnik]

Andy, this is fantastic! I have used vapor deposition for silvering glass, and many of my first attempts were on glass. This method is quite simple and requires no vacuum chamber like the deposition I did. One thing to consider is the thickness of the silver. I have used telescopes with mirrors made like this that are quite old, and there were no signs of flaking off. We are removing some of the silver and transforming quite a bit of it chemically making dags. Perhaps this leads to too thin a layer to hold to the glass? I’ll save my pennies and get a coating kit. The more people experimenting with this the better.

cheers,

chriso

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