DIY Dryer

Nicholas Lindan said:

When I lived in a small apartment I would dry prints by placing them face-up on the living room carpet. Worked about as well as drying screens.

If you aren't willing to turn the living room into a giant print dryer, well, I don't know - traditional photography demands commitment, after all.

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Sundowner said:

Did some searching and didn't come up with much; maybe that should tell me something...

I'm looking for a FB drying-time solution for a ridiculously small and ad-hoc darkroom; I used to have plenty of space and time for window screens in my old darkroom, but I don't have that space (or much space at all) in the house that we're in now, and I do have lots of dust...so I'm thinking on a powered drying box/cabinet that would keep the prints protected while the water evaporates.

I've used larger commercial devices of this nature in the past and they seemed to work well, so I'm thinking that a small version might work for my closet-sized space...but most of the actual print dryers that I see for sale are pretty clapped-out, and they're pricey for what they are. So: is there any good reason that I can't just filter the air intake of a basic dehydrator cabinet and run it on a low setting? A decent one will go down to 70° or so and come with a pile of stainless racks that should be non-harmful to the paper, and they're less expensive than actual print dryers...so, why wouldn't that work?

It seems like such an easy repurpose; I'm not sure why I haven't found much on the idea. Maybe I suck harder at Google than I thought.

Opinions and ideas welcome.

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Paul Howell said:

Living in the Southwest low desert, today the coldest day of the winter so far it is 66 with 20% humidity a FB print will dry in a few hours. How about a table top dryer, you can have new belt made by a seamstress for little money.

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MattKing said:

What is the maximum size of print that you seek to dry?

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Nicholas Lindan said:

When I lived in a small apartment I would dry prints by placing them face-up on the living room carpet. Worked about as well as drying screens.

If you aren't willing to turn the living room into a giant print dryer, well, I don't know - traditional photography demands commitment, after all.

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mshchem said:

A forced air oven set to 150-170°F with prints between blotter papers.

I use meticulously clean Pako belt dryers. Emulsion side towards the belt. Requires a hardener, usually in the fixer, to keep prints from sticking. This means Kodak Hypo clearing agent, and archival wash.

When I was a kid my Dad would roll up our DW Medalist prints in a Kodak blotter roll and sit on the floor heat register, still took overnight to dry.

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mshchem said:

I have a friend who would do this with hundreds of postcard prints, worked great.

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Pieter12 said:

Sound like a great idea. Let us know if you follow through and what you got.

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MattKing said:

For small prints, something like this might work...

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• Most of the small dehydrators on the market are functionally identical to the print dryers that use a fan and heater element: both are essentially boxes with wire/plastic trays, a fan, some kind of heating element, and a thermostat. I suppose this is because there are only so many ways to build a box that removes the moisture from things that are flat and somewhat saturated with a fluid.
• Dehydrators often have the same kind of internal materials as print dryers of that type: both are essentially designed to be resistant to chemicals and possibly-corrosive materials. Dehydrators do use chrome-plated racks in some models, which seems like a recipe for rust...but the plastic- and stainless-rack models wouldn't have that issue.
• Dehydrators are possibly a bit lower in power consumption than print dryers, in general: 600W seems to be a low threshold for many models, and small ones seem to go up to the 1200-1500W range. Fan-circulation print dryers have wattages that are all over the place, and heated-platen dryers are very high in wattage...which makes sense.
• Dehydrators are almost all EXACTLY the wrong size: the biggest racks that I've found are about 15" by 15", so while 11" by 14" could easily be done, you can't stack two 8" by 10" sheets on the same rack. Even worse: as the dryer increases in capacity, it basically grows to that size rack and then simply gets taller, so you don't get much more than a single additional print per additional rack (given the above sizing). Print dryers aren't much better in their dimensionality, but you can often double smaller sheet sizes on the rack of a larger unit.
• Dehydrators are very cheap on the used market, and often in pretty good shape. Print dryers are expensive, and often look like they've not been used for a few decades after having been abused for just as long.

Paul Howell said:

Well, do you need a print in a hurry? As you print small, buy a set of 10X10 picture frames recycle the glass and use a stapler to attach fiberglass screen to the frame. then glue a 1/4 inch square maybe 1 inch by 1 inch at each of the cornores for air flow. Just let the prints air dry. If you need a test print to see how dry down affects the final print use a microwave.

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Paul Howell said:

I hadn't thought of that.

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