Cleaning old emulsion off of glass

jimgalli · Nov 21, 2020

I'm making 2 7X11 ground glasses out of an exposed 11X14 glass plate. But fixer didn't clear the 100 year old emulsion away and I'm old and can't remember what the stuff is that just washes all the silver off. Somebody help me out and then I'll go away for another 20 years.

Roger Thoms · Nov 21, 2020

If I recall weren’t people using household bleach to remove emulsion of one side of double sided x-ray film. Should be easy to test.

Roger

koraks · Nov 21, 2020

Yeah, just rub on some Clorox until it clears. The emulsion will soften and then flake off as you keep rubbing. A cotton pad or paper tissue works fine.

jimgalli · Nov 21, 2020

Well that's easy enough, isn't it. Thanks. But before I do that tomorrow I need to play a bit. I held the lightly fogged glass up with a lens out front and an image formed nicely on the old silver that's left. Thanks, both.

Rick A · Nov 21, 2020

If you are planning to use household bleach to strip the emulsion, do it outside in fresh air. You do not want that in the house, my chemist daughter warned me the fumes could be toxic.

Tel · Nov 21, 2020

I was told to wear gloves when working with bleach. And I've ruined more than one shirt that way too...

koraks · Nov 22, 2020

Rick A said:
If you are planning to use household bleach to strip the emulsion, do it outside in fresh air. You do not want that in the house, my chemist daughter warned me the fumes could be toxic.

Funny since it's widely sold and used as a household cleaning agent eh? Makes you wonder what manufacturers expect you to do - move the toilet outside the house before cleaning it, perhaps. Sounds like more of a chore than it usually is.
Don't mix household bleach with acids as chlorine gas will be formed. Other than that, it's not a huge concern really.

Tel said:
I was told to wear gloves when working with bleach. And I've ruined more than one shirt that way too...

Bleach is pretty effective in dissolving fat/grease, hence the recommendation for gloves. Not everybody likes dry skin.

Nodda Duma · Nov 22, 2020

Run it through the dishwasher on the hottest setting. It’ll come out clean.

Rick A · Nov 22, 2020

koraks said:
Funny since it's widely sold and used as a household cleaning agent eh? Makes you wonder what manufacturers expect you to do - move the toilet outside the house before cleaning it, perhaps. Sounds like more of a chore than it usually is.
Don't mix household bleach with acids as chlorine gas will be formed. Other than that, it's not a huge concern really.

Bleach is pretty effective in dissolving fat/grease, hence the recommendation for gloves. Not everybody likes dry skin.

I use it outdoors any way, I absolutely cannot stand the odor of chlorine bleach. I trust my daughter's judgement about chemical reactions between certain elements, she works in a testing facility. Chlorine bleach is really not as innocuous as the marketing hype would have you believe. I use it to strip emulsion from large sheets of X ray film to make tissue for carbon transfers. We don't use it for any other purpose at our house, there are better and less harmful products available to clean and disinfect.

koraks · Nov 22, 2020

Rick A said:
Chlorine bleach is really not as innocuous as the marketing hype would have you believe.

I tend to rely on about of century of massively widespread use in millions of homes, really. Apart from the obvious mistakes of people mixing bleach and, say, hydrochloric acid (killer combo, that one!), light to moderate exposure to hypochlorite doesn't do much.
You avoid swimming pools as well, I assume?

Rick A · Nov 22, 2020

You avoid swimming pools as well, I assume?
Only the ones that use chlorine, modern systems utilize other disinfectant methods.

koraks · Nov 22, 2020

I don't frequent pools much, but the ones in the saunas we attend still use chlorine.

radiant · Nov 22, 2020

We are talking about saunas!

Chlorine is indeed used in swimming pools. What I have read is that the concentrate they are using is non-toxic when it is in form of liquid.

BUT! You don't want that stuff into sauna because it evaporates to gas and then you have toxic substance in the air. Swimwear for example are denied in finnish public saunas because of this. Also you are required to take shower before entering sauna too.

I read a story that some international guest had picked up pool water to use in sauna. After few throws on the hot stones people came out of the sauna feeeling very sick and had symptoms for long because of using chlorine based water for "löyly"-water.

Cleaning old emulsion off of glass

jimgalli

Roger Thoms

koraks

Moderator

jimgalli

Rick A

Tel

koraks

Moderator

Nodda Duma

Rick A

koraks

Moderator

Rick A

koraks

Moderator

radiant

Cleaning old emulsion off of glass

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency