print flattening update

February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

My darkroom is pretty much functional again
after a hiatus.

Yesterday I put my print flattener back into
service. It's the high-tech version -- a
stack of heavy flat things with a weight on
top.

Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of
glass and some are melamine-covered particle
boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic
covered both sides).

Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had
to clean all the heavy flat things, both
sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would
show. They were surprisingly clean, actually,
even though I've been a bit careless with
them recently. I used some ammonia and
distilled water on clean rags to swab them.

This post is about the tiny things we do that
can contaminate our process. While cleaning
my plastic covered boards, I found some
(mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought
they would be permanent, but I noticed the
ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and
applying a thumbnail broke them up if they
were wet with ammonia.

Well, it didn't take long to figure out the
source of the specks. I sign my prints with
India ink. Obviously I have not been patient
enough to let the ink dry every time I use
it. I'm just glad there were not more black
specks.

It should be no problem to flatten prints
with boards that have dried India ink on
them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not
transfer. But the presence of the specks
gives the flattening devices a dirty look,
and makes examining them for real dirt take
much longer. It also means I have been
careless in handling my prints in the past!
I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted.
(Hm - none I noticed, at least ...).

So, an unnecessary update. Take more care
(even more care ...) with print finishing. Do
not allow dirt to accumulate on print
flattening devices.

India ink on the glass flat things scraped
off in an instant. (On glass I could use a
razor scraper, but not on the melamine.)
India ink on melamine is tenacious and
tedious.

In the past I've always done print spotting
and signing before flattening. I'm not sure
why, since flat prints would be easier to
spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother
flattening prints I decided not to spot and
sign. But no signed prints under the
flattener would mean no ink transfer ...

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

Good advice here. Thanks. I always keep clean white mat between my prints
and weights or dry mount press. A hint of dirt and they are replaced.

"Lloyd Erlick" Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote in message
...
February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

My darkroom is pretty much functional again
after a hiatus.

Yesterday I put my print flattener back into
service. It's the high-tech version -- a
stack of heavy flat things with a weight on
top.

Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of
glass and some are melamine-covered particle
boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic
covered both sides).

Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had
to clean all the heavy flat things, both
sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would
show. They were surprisingly clean, actually,
even though I've been a bit careless with
them recently. I used some ammonia and
distilled water on clean rags to swab them.

This post is about the tiny things we do that
can contaminate our process. While cleaning
my plastic covered boards, I found some
(mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought
they would be permanent, but I noticed the
ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and
applying a thumbnail broke them up if they
were wet with ammonia.

Well, it didn't take long to figure out the
source of the specks. I sign my prints with
India ink. Obviously I have not been patient
enough to let the ink dry every time I use
it. I'm just glad there were not more black
specks.

It should be no problem to flatten prints
with boards that have dried India ink on
them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not
transfer. But the presence of the specks
gives the flattening devices a dirty look,
and makes examining them for real dirt take
much longer. It also means I have been
careless in handling my prints in the past!
I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted.
(Hm - none I noticed, at least ...).

So, an unnecessary update. Take more care
(even more care ...) with print finishing. Do
not allow dirt to accumulate on print
flattening devices.

India ink on the glass flat things scraped
off in an instant. (On glass I could use a
razor scraper, but not on the melamine.)
India ink on melamine is tenacious and
tedious.

In the past I've always done print spotting
and signing before flattening. I'm not sure
why, since flat prints would be easier to
spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother
flattening prints I decided not to spot and
sign. But no signed prints under the
flattener would mean no ink transfer ...

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:20:06 GMT, "Pieter
Litchfield" wrote:

I always keep clean white mat between my prints
and weights or dry mount press.


February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

A good idea. I wonder why I never did it? I
think I'll go get some clean mat board.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

"Lloyd Erlick" Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote in
message ...
February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

My darkroom is pretty much functional again
after a hiatus.

Yesterday I put my print flattener back into
service. It's the high-tech version -- a
stack of heavy flat things with a weight on
top.

Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of
glass and some are melamine-covered particle
boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic
covered both sides).

Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had
to clean all the heavy flat things, both
sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would
show. They were surprisingly clean, actually,
even though I've been a bit careless with
them recently. I used some ammonia and
distilled water on clean rags to swab them.

This post is about the tiny things we do that
can contaminate our process. While cleaning
my plastic covered boards, I found some
(mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought
they would be permanent, but I noticed the
ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and
applying a thumbnail broke them up if they
were wet with ammonia.

Well, it didn't take long to figure out the
source of the specks. I sign my prints with
India ink. Obviously I have not been patient
enough to let the ink dry every time I use
it. I'm just glad there were not more black
specks.

It should be no problem to flatten prints
with boards that have dried India ink on
them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not
transfer. But the presence of the specks
gives the flattening devices a dirty look,
and makes examining them for real dirt take
much longer. It also means I have been
careless in handling my prints in the past!
I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted.
(Hm - none I noticed, at least ...).

So, an unnecessary update. Take more care
(even more care ...) with print finishing. Do
not allow dirt to accumulate on print
flattening devices.

India ink on the glass flat things scraped
off in an instant. (On glass I could use a
razor scraper, but not on the melamine.)
India ink on melamine is tenacious and
tedious.

In the past I've always done print spotting
and signing before flattening. I'm not sure
why, since flat prints would be easier to
spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother
flattening prints I decided not to spot and
sign. But no signed prints under the
flattener would mean no ink transfer ...

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--
Interesting. I use a dry mounting press for flattening.
Flattening is part of the prep for dry mounting but one can
simply flatten the prints. the prints are put into the press
with a sheet of release tissue on the emulsion side and a
couple of sheets of thick "construction" or kraft paper on
either side. The paper is dryed out in the press before
using it. I close the press on the sandwich and leave it for
about 2 minutes, it isn't necessary to lock the press. Then
I put the whole sandwich under a flat weight. While a thick
sheet of Aluminum is best even flat plywood will do. Even
though there is some padding from the paper the weight still
has to be free of particals because they will emboss the
print surface. The print needs only a couple of minutes
under the weight, just long enough to cool.
The idea of the release tissue is to prevent drying of
the emulsion. The paper drys out from the support side which
tends to equalize the shrinkage of support and emulsion.
I've found that prints flattened this way stay flat even
with fairly wide variations in relative humidity.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:53:00 GMT, "Richard
Knoppow" wrote:

I use a dry mounting press for flattening.
Flattening is part of the prep for dry mounting but one can
simply flatten the prints.


February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

Well, a dry mounting press would be quite a
luxury!

Maybe eventually one will present itself for
cheap. Stranger things have happened. I
bought a water distiller for ten dollars, and
it is dribbling into a bucket for me at this
very moment.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

I bought mine new for cost in 1996 (1972 cost!) the store that had it was
happy to unload it since everyone had moved away from using FB papers and no
longer needed presses to mount their RC prints and were instead using peel
and stick mounts (cheaper in the short run and I use them myself for
Ciba/Ilfochromes, since the emulsion is relatively fragile). So one day I
just shot him a price, since his sticker code was an open secret I knew what
he had paid for it, and walked out of there with a new Technal press.

I still drymount some prints but use it mostly for print flattening chores.
It's not a luxury when those big jobs come around!

--
darkroommike
"Lloyd Erlick" Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote in message
...
On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:53:00 GMT, "Richard
Knoppow" wrote:

I use a dry mounting press for flattening.
Flattening is part of the prep for dry mounting but one can
simply flatten the prints.


February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

Well, a dry mounting press would be quite a
luxury!

Maybe eventually one will present itself for
cheap. Stranger things have happened. I
bought a water distiller for ten dollars, and
it is dribbling into a bucket for me at this
very moment.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

The catalog from the Elliott Erwitt show at the MOMA last summer works
well as a weight. it will flatten most anything.

Lloyd Erlick wrote:

Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of
glass and some are melamine-covered particle
boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic
covered both sides).
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com


Heavy, flat, water proof, sheets. Your prints then are
dry prior to flattening? Nothing separates your prints
either side from the weighty sheets? Dan

On 23 Feb 2006 15:18:00 -0800,
wrote:

Lloyd Erlick wrote:

Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of
glass and some are melamine-covered particle
boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic
covered both sides).
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com


Heavy, flat, water proof, sheets. Your prints then are
dry prior to flattening? Nothing separates your prints
either side from the weighty sheets? Dan


February 24, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

Yes, my prints are fully dry when I flatten
them.

I've always just placed them bare between the
flat things. Glass and plastic are easy to
keep clean, and as long as everything is dry,
there is a low probability of contamination.
They only stay in there a day or two usually.

I've had no problems with scratching or
anything mechanical. I make sure the surfaces
are perfectly smooth every time I use them.

I think my only advancement over the basic
tech of heavy flat objects squashing paper is
to limit the number of sheets of paper to one
single sheet between any two flat things. I
find the edges flatten best if each
'sandwich' of flat things contains only one
print. Seems easy, but little errors can
creep in unnoticed over time, as I pointed
out in my little 'update'.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

Lloyd Erlick wrote:
February 23, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

My darkroom is pretty much functional again
after a hiatus.

Yesterday I put my print flattener back into
service. It's the high-tech version -- a
stack of heavy flat things with a weight on
top.

Some of my heavy flat things are sheets of
glass and some are melamine-covered particle
boards of appropriate dimensions (plastic
covered both sides).

Before using my Print Flattener DeLuxe, I had
to clean all the heavy flat things, both
sides. The melamine is white, so dirt would
show. They were surprisingly clean, actually,
even though I've been a bit careless with
them recently. I used some ammonia and
distilled water on clean rags to swab them.

This post is about the tiny things we do that
can contaminate our process. While cleaning
my plastic covered boards, I found some
(mercifully few) tiny black spots. I thought
they would be permanent, but I noticed the
ammonia dissolved them extremely slowly, and
applying a thumbnail broke them up if they
were wet with ammonia.

Well, it didn't take long to figure out the
source of the specks. I sign my prints with
India ink. Obviously I have not been patient
enough to let the ink dry every time I use
it. I'm just glad there were not more black
specks.

It should be no problem to flatten prints
with boards that have dried India ink on
them. Once dry the stuff certainly will not
transfer. But the presence of the specks
gives the flattening devices a dirty look,
and makes examining them for real dirt take
much longer. It also means I have been
careless in handling my prints in the past!
I'm just lucky no smudged prints resulted.
(Hm - none I noticed, at least ...).

So, an unnecessary update. Take more care
(even more care ...) with print finishing. Do
not allow dirt to accumulate on print
flattening devices.

India ink on the glass flat things scraped
off in an instant. (On glass I could use a
razor scraper, but not on the melamine.)
India ink on melamine is tenacious and
tedious.

In the past I've always done print spotting
and signing before flattening. I'm not sure
why, since flat prints would be easier to
spot. Maybe I didn't want to bother
flattening prints I decided not to spot and
sign. But no signed prints under the
flattener would mean no ink transfer ...

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
FYI: re; India Ink
Pilot has several models of rollerball pens which write on photo paper
and are permanent. At least they are easier than India ink!
gr