Drying RC and Fibre Paper.

[zemzem]

Maybe I'm suffering from information overload, but I'm a little confused about the methods for drying RC and Fibre paper using print dryers. Some posts say never use RC paper in a metal/canvas type dryer and some say it's fine. But can you use Fibre paper in a forced air RC dryer? The reason I'm asking is because now I have both types of dryers. I have a giant old Rexo and a small Premier. If my apartment wasn't so dusty I'd just use drying racks, but that doesn't seem like a good option. I was also thinking of using blotters for the Fibre paper as that would pretty much keep the dust off. Any thoughts?:confused:

 

[Paul Howell]

Maybe I'm suffering from information overload, but I'm a little confused about the methods for drying RC and Fibre paper using print dryers. Some posts say never use RC paper in a metal/canvas type dryer and some say it's fine. But can you use Fibre paper in a forced air RC dryer? The reason I'm asking is because now I have both types of dryers. I have a giant old Rexo and a small Premier. If my apartment wasn't so dusty I'd just use drying racks, but that doesn't seem like a good option. I was also thinking of using blotters for the Fibre paper as that would pretty much keep the dust off. Any thoughts?:confused:

I dry my FB on racks outside and l live in the desert, never any problems with dust on prints. If your electric dryer has tempature control you can set it low so as not to melt the plastic on a RC print. I dry my RC prints with a hair dyer, just takes a mint.

 

[Konical]

Good Afternoon, Zemzem,

RC dries so fast that I usually do nothing special at all--just plop them down on a drying screen and go back to more printing. If you're really in a hurry, the hair dryer, as Paul indicates, will do the trick.

For fiber--If you think that dust would be a problem with screen or rack drying, why not just drape something like cheesecloth over the rack. You could also make a drying cabinet incorporating a small fan and a common furnace filter. A forced hot-air dryer (I don't have one) should be OK, but fiber prints are usually flatter when allowed to dry slowly.

Konical

 

[zemzem]

Thanks

Good Afternoon, Zemzem,

RC dries so fast that I usually do nothing special at all--just plop them down on a drying screen and go back to more printing. If you're really in a hurry, the hair dryer, as Paul indicates, will do the trick.

For fiber--If you think that dust would be a problem with screen or rack drying, why not just drape something like cheesecloth over the rack. You could also make a drying cabinet incorporating a small fan and a common furnace filter. A forced hot-air dryer (I don't have one) should be OK, but fiber prints are usually flatter when allowed to dry slowly.

Konical

I was thinking of a drying rack-cabinet combo. I discovered that the air vent in my bathroom (which was going to be the darkroom) is connected to the air vents for the clothes dryers across the hall. That's why there's so much lint/dust in the room. It's just not me being lazy.

And since there's no window....

Thanks for the info.

 

[Paul Howell]

I was thinking of a drying rack-cabinet combo. I discovered that the air vent in my bathroom (which was going to be the darkroom) is connected to the air vents for the clothes dryers across the hall. That's why there's so much lint/dust in the room. It's just not me being lazy.

And since there's no window....

If this the case dust on your prints will be the least of your worries. You need to filter the air from the vent to keep dust of your negatives or you will one heck of a print spotter.

 

[zemzem]

I can actually use my hallway for the enlarging, with some carefully placed black out curtains and an outlet fan. Just wasn't quite what I had planned when I moved here.

 

[kb244]

I'm a weird duck.... on some of my fibers I like to roll them emulsion-out on a ferro plate, then when it has dried enough for it to seem barely damp but not soaking, I put them between two solid peices of cardboard, but I place a sheet of wax paper down first then put the emulsion facing down on that, then place an absorbent but flat material on the back of that (that is long enough to hangs out of the side of the stack), then cardboard down on that, and repeat for each print, and weigh it down and check it in a day to a couple of days. I'm not usually a big glossy fan so the method works, and its not like it's gona stick to the wax paper, and should be able to absorb and dissipate the moisture allowing the print to dry flat.

Course also keep in mind , I'm mainly a hobbiest and I don't print that often. But I know it worked quite well with Agfa Brovira, Kodak Velox, and especially well with Ansco Cykora Silk.