[Pollywog]

Not a problem guys,

Sometimes silly questions sparks new knowledge (for me in this case) and news from others.

I am happy to hear the forum comes alive and hopeful it will always be.

I suppose for petecarney’s inquiry on reading the the surface temperature, one might be able to use the IR thermometer to have external reading. Though it might not be the actual temperature of what is going on on the inside the pot.

Keep us posted on the new mercury pot Alan, I will try to make it a goal of mine to have one of yours when it is financially sound for me, it is beautiful and well engineered.

[Pollywog]

I do agree with Alan as I began to see that making mercury pot (or any other equipments) in small batch or continuous run is an arduous undertaking, even more taxing on time and the expense. In my case, when I started to source for gears last year, most aren’t available at the time at, and in most companies that might be able to make them (the bespoke/custom) will charge quite high price, that turns most budget cautious practitioners away.

For me, though the handling dangerous chemicals is quite apparent with daguerreotype,the beauty is still too attractive to turn away from. I began to see then where I suppose every senior members here was sourcing out for the apparatus with something that is hardly known to many woodworkers/metal-smiths, and they priced to make them at high rate like making a custom cars. Which at the time, the community to give advise was even smaller than today. I respect the rigour you all had put into fining your craft. And I do see the logistic of the price that Alan had to come up to.

Though I do agree with Irving on where we wish for the day when the spread of this craft goes another mile where the equipments are available in reachable economy (with safety in the apparatus taken care of). I suppose when the demand of new-practitioners (like myself) reached to the suitable investments made by the apparatus-makers (funny, I am on this side as well), then the price may be made lower.

Until the day comes, I still have to go around and make my own apparatus and negotiate the prices and the logistics. This made me love my dag-making gears even more, despite the flaws and so many versions of what-not-to-do gears in the chipper. Though, I am lucky this community is here to guide and to give in their thoughts, which makes the needed difference from making major mistakes.

Now I have to go and bash those stainless steel into a pyramid.

I thank all senior members here who had chipped in and I will post the gears on the forum once it is done. Hopefully not too gaudy, and able to deliver the Hg fumes as it should once I powder coat the internal surface.

[Pollywog]

Fantastic and beautifully design setup Alan!

I will take in the advise on the material constructions and the most important part would be the interior coating of black heat resistant paint, which I assume the auto-shops / car body shops could provide the spray job on it.

[Pollywog]

Thank you Mike for the overview.

I’ll do the adjustments on the materials as you had advised. I am relieved as the materials of choice for making it are getting cheaper!

[Pollywog]

Thank you for the reply Pete.

I had asked Mike Robinson on the material that he used for his mercury fuming box. He mentioned that he used stainless steel coated with epoxy.

Assuming that it’s probably similar stainless steel used for marine boats (316 if I am not mistaken), I thought of utilising the same material.

Interesting point on the possibility of mercury could amalgamate with this material. I thought this type is quite a stubborn material, hard to corrode in most conditions.

Perhaps Mike could explain on the choice of material? I wouldn’t want to build something that might risk leeching out the mercury fume.

[Pollywog]

As I assume that this is for electroplating silver, I could answer this with my very recent experience in doing this process.

Either copper / brass (copper+zinc) could be electroplated silver, just as long as silver could be deposited on it. 100 percent copper isn’t a must, as it is just a base for the silver to be deposited on.

I am not sure about ‘rice’, which I assume its brass?

For the velveteen, I used the ones I got the German velvet, as there are varieties of fabrics used by the members from the previous posts, you could use whichever that suits you best.

Plain white/cream ones are fine, as they are usually slightly cheaper, not much cheaper, than the coloured ones. Plus it will go darker as you polish the plates with the powdered rouge.

The orbital sanders is there to save time and muscle spams. I initially did hand-polish before, which quite nicely tone my arms after a half dozen plates, with unfortunate suffering of cramps days later!

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Hi John,

Yes the boxes are unfortunately out of stock at this moment and more boxes are in production.

Could you pass me your e-mail address and I could forward you the shipping quotation and further arrangement?

Thanks.

Kind regards,
Ismail @ Pollywog at CDags

[Pollywog]

I doubt I’ll be doing mercury & bromine with this type of setup. Too dangerous and I don’t think the authorities and the public would appreciate it.I’ll do those only in the proper lab fume cabinets and it should remained so.

The idea for the tent (lightproofed and with only a small filtered window) and would fit me (unfortunately) alongside with the fuming box and a little space for the working hands. It’s pretty much a suggestion that I want to try to do dags in the outdoors, which will be quite away from any sort of infrastructures. Hopefully this plan might work.

It’s pretty much meant to make Becquerel Daguerreotypes, which I will work with only resublimed Iodine crystals. I just need the fumes to be sucked away from me.

Taking your comment of me being in the tent with the iodine fume, I think I’ll build another smaller tent, just to fit in the fuming box and a bit of space for my hands) for the extraction. I don’t want to walk out like Barney the Dinosaur each time I sensitize the plates.

Thank you for reminding me of me being in there with the chemicals, it totally skipped my thoughts and very crucial indeed.

I’ll try to build one and post it here later (if I don’t die) when I finish building it and do a test run.

[Pollywog]

Hi Csant,

I have found your mail! It was buried in the spam section unfortunately. I do apologise on that and I didn’t know why that had happened. I’ll immediately respond to your email in a little while.

Kind regards,
Ismail

[Pollywog]

Hi Csant,

Unfortunately I didn’t receive your email, I am not sure why it didn’t go through via forum. Please do contact me at photoformulary@gmail.com

There’s only one left now and looks like there’s your name on it!

This batch went out very fast and the next batch is going to be quite a while.

Kind regards,
Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Good call guys,

So far the package went through, though I didn’t like the delay. I had sent in the descriptions as advised to the courier company for them as a supplement to the customs, simple description for layman works apparently.

I appreciate the advise on this. Many thanks!

[Pollywog]

Thanks guys for the inquiries for the fuming boxes.

Most of the boxes went out quite fast and I am left with few in hand. More information of them could be seen at http://www.unspokencodes.com

I’ll keep on making them, with few more additional twists on how it would look and something in the line of portability and sizes.

To be honest, it’s quite fun making these, hopefully I could gather enough to run my own practice and enjoy image-making through daguerreotypy as I planned for quite sometime ago.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Hi Marc,

The boxes would be at £350/- for the pair as mentioned.

The delivery for the two on UPS Economy (which is 3+ days after delivery pickup, and please also consider time for your country's custom time process), will be at £35/- to Belgium. The total will be at £385/- for this delivery.

If it's fast delivery, unfortunately it's twice more via UPS Express, which was quoted nearly £85/- by them (2 to 3 days).

Via this delivery it would be at £350+£85= £435/-.

Please do inform me which delivery method would be preferred, or another company courier

The boxes will be wrapped snugly in layers of bubble wraps and boxed with silica gels inside.

For reference on me, my UK's eBay member is arstudioworks, which is in good standing and my regular stuff and junk purchases from the site. And also from another CDag's senior member, Brenton West (drdag), could vouch me.

Please do email me at: photoformulary (at) gmail.com if more info needed, plus I am not sure how to access member's email via the CDags's forum.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Hi Captivelight,

Sure, I think the previous post had the images shown, but just in case:

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

The top opening is at 8 inches (width) x 10 inches (length).

The frame’s width is at estimated at 20.80 mm thick, these will come in two sets, one of the set is for 5″x4″, 5″x7″, and the other will be for full plate, half plate & quarter plate. These two sets of frames are something I had made just to throw in for this first batch of fume boxes, I suppose one could quickly build any suitable frames for their dag plates for something smaller than 8″ x 10″. (i.e. – oval shapes, or any odd sizes perhaps)

The internal volume’s dimension is estimated at : 21.5 cm (width) x 27.5 cm (length) x 15 cm (height). You would need something suitable to hold the iodine crystals or bromine, pyrex dishes or lock&lock, whichever one feels comfortable to work with.

The transparent sliding panel for releasing the fumes is made of acrylic sheet, which could be easily taken out with the attached screws at the handle if needed to replace with glass if desired. I prefer to ship them off with the acrylic sheet than glass as not to risk them from breaking and it would be much safer and lighter.

It was suggested that brass latches could be installed with it, but I would prefer the user to supply their own as there are tons of designs and shapes at their local hardware stores or online (it’s more of personal taste and practicality really) and it could be place anywhere comfortable for the users on the box (left-handed people usually have different preference as to where to reach for the latch). Most of the nice designs for these sort of latches are designed for boats or small cabinets.

It’s ready to be shipped out and arranged for shipment, payment could be made via Paypal at this moment, I’ll update further if other form of online payments arranged (Google Checkout etc.)

The price for the box is at £180/- each, and for a pair would go for £350/-.

The price for shipment is separate, please do inform me on your exact address for shipment for me to come up with the quote, and any form custom fee or taxes would be on the buyer. In terms of description of the item for shipping declaration, I suppose I would call it as “darkroom tools” rather than “fuming box”, which I know would cause trouble to over explaining to these customs.

Hope these explains well and please do shoot away any questions about it.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Here are the recent images of the box that was unpacked today:

Hope these images would show, but I had them on imageshack just in case.

Details following in the next post

[Pollywog]

The boxes finally arrived!

I will be uploading the images and its details later tonight.

On the side note, I hoped and pray for the well-being of any CDags members, friends & families that was hit badly by the Sandy Storm in NY.

As much as disasters as such brings about great images, which I think will be part for those affected by it, I do hope all are in good health and recover well.

Take care and I'll post an update soon.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for asking a few, but very important questions.

I thank you for the compliment, but I have to tribute the design which I had observed across the gallery of the CDag's significant members; Ivan Rose, Marc Fish, Mike Robinson, and certainly highly appreciated advise from Brenton West.

On the box:

As on how the plates would be held, there's four rails to hold the plates/smaller frames. I suppose it'll give the desired effect that you had mentioned.

The fume boxes are located in Malaysia, or at the sea as we speak, heading towards London right now. And I am currently located in Plymouth, which is unfortunately I would not be able to produce anymore images other than the ones I had shown earlier. I promise I'll upload the details as requested by the end of the month.

The sizes of the frames, as seen in the pictures:

(1) Whole Plate: 8 1/2 inches x 6 1/2 inches

(2) Half Plate: 6 3/8 inches x 4 3/4 inches

(3) Quarter Plate: 4 1/4 inches x 3 1/4 inches

The sizes of the frames were based from Chevalier's dimension on Daguerreotype's plate sizes, which it was based to English plate sizes, I think the French plates had slightly different sizes for their whole, half and quarter plates.

In any case, other sized frames shouldn't be hard to make and quite fast to lash out in the woodshop here in Plymouth. If anyone have different sizes, like modern film sizes, I could do those if requested. The largest opening of the box is 8" x 10", so it'll be anything smaller of frames (i.e.: 4" x 5", 5" x 7" etc.).

In terms of leakage, I had recalled speaking with a lab technician in regards for keeping resublimed iodine crystals in a tupperware like Lock & Lock, he mentioned it might work if its tested with regular smoke first and observed for any signs of leakage before committing to iodine crystals, the discussion was brief but requires proof that it must work safely.

In terms of the box being a used as a storage, from what I had seen, won't be a perfect tool for it. What I had observed previously from Christopher Brenton West's workshop, is to put the iodine crystals back into its original lab bottle containment,

The iodine fumes would raise significantly at 18-20 degree Celsius. The temperature in the UK requires a bit of help warming up the crystals as it's always on the lower side in most of the shaded environment, hence it's just safer to have those crystals in the bottle rather than in the box.

In my previous (prototype) box, I had made an extra internal box, where its lips touches the glass/acrylic. This might work to evenly distribute the fume (theoretically at least), but I had noticed that it runs the risk of the wood expanding if the humidity goes high, it was a component that I had to let go for this batch until I find some way suitable to fit this kind of design.

I had tried bottom spring, but I ended up having a hard time shoving the glass/acrylic sheet back in as it tilts the dish inside. Probably another member could advise me on this.

There's a ton of ways modifying the box to suit the users, I believe this fuming box would work for quite a while.

In terms of price, I had mentioned it'll be at GBP 180/- each, I suppose a pair would go at GBP 350/-. I know I won't be rich doing this, but at least it's something for future daguerrean to maintain the practice. Who knows, I might go all out making a basic "Dag Kit" in the future.

The shipment to the USA, I'll have to calculate first where exactly it'll go to in the US once I have the box at hand (it's roughly around 4 kg, packed should be around 5kg with foams and box). I wonder what to write it off as? A small furniture? Lol.

I hoped these explanation answered some of the enquiries. I'll put up the following images of the fuming box soon.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Again, I had trouble uploading the images here.

These are the links to the finished fuming box:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/213/img0138lug.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/img0133ra.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/145/img0135de.jpg/

Hope these shows up.

Take care.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Sorry for the long wait, I had to manage quite a number of difficult papers in the last few months (doing PhD and all).

In any case, back to the Dag world. Yes, good news, the box is ready and it's currently on the ship to London. I had to manage to have them built in Malaysia just to keep the cost low. I'm going up to London by the end of the month (31st October) to receive them and hopefully, if there's interest, I'll reserve a few as enquired by some members earlier.

The box's design was prepped with an arm rest at the back to prevent the top part from falling all the way to the back and risking the its hinges from breaking off. It's slightly bigger to accommodate to the slightly larger 8" x 10" opening, so one could fit similar or lesser size catch frame.

I hope this news would ease to those waiting for it.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Here's the link to the image:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/iodinboxinprogress.jpg/

I can't seem to upload my image here, hopefully this works.

[Pollywog]

Sorry, had trouble uploading the image. I'll try to upload the image again

[Pollywog]

Hi Csant,

The box is still in production, it should be done by the end of this month. It's about 80% done as we speak (as the image shown)

They are re-adjusting out for few more components like the brass hinges attachments. The slight delay was due to the woodshop was on a break for a few weeks last month.

I'll certainly post it up here once it's completed.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Not a problem csant, I’ll keep you posted and also I’ll announce it on the board once it’s available.

-Pollywog

[Pollywog]

Thank you CasedImage for your kind comment,

Your works on the Morroco cases is something I truly admire and quite a distance for me to even try to compete. It would certainly push one harder to find an original concept of beautiful simplicity for daguerreotype cases.

-Pollywog

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