Drying glass dry plates - is a desiccant useful?

[JensH]

Hi,

I have been thinking about drying homemade dry plates (glass plates).
It seems drying without desiccant works well, but what if I would put e.g. some silica gel into the drying box?
So I could avoid dust blown in by ventilation...
But are there negative effects if drying dry plates too much? Loss af ASA?

Best
Jens

 

[Nodda Duma]

Hi Jens,

I found I needed dessicant in the enclosed lightbox to keep humidity down enough for emulsion to dry in a reasonable timeframe. I used a tub of Damp Rid for this purpose, but even so drying times were long (days). My enclosure was a non-working lab oven with wire racks, but I no longer have it available. It had no way to circulate the air inside.

I since changed my drying technique to have a fan blowing over the drying plates during the coating session and overnight in the open in the darkroom, where chances of turning on a light are minimized and controlle . It works much faster. I haven't noticed any extra dust accumulation with the fan.