Ilford 1050 RC print dryer

[John_A]

I got an offer for one of these quite cheap. Is it worth getting? Any knowsn pitfalls or parts that tend to need replacing?
Seems its using fan assisted IR heaters.

 

[Anon Ymous]

RC paper dries quickly and flat, so I wouldn't bother...

 

[pentaxuser]

We had one in the college darkroom. It can dry paper in a matter of seconds from soaking wet and will do many sheets in a matter of minutes if your workflow is geared to doing many sheets at once having stored them in a water bath during the printing session.

It did appear to add an extra gloss to glossy paper but that might have been my imagination

On the downside it uses quite a lot of power and needs a few minutes to warm up. If I recall correctly it wasn't the kind of equipment you can turn on and off and get instant throughput and if you leave it on for instant use on an "as and when" basis during an evening's printing the power consumption can be high.

pentaxuser

 

[Mick Fagan]

They are an excellent unit, although slightly large(ish) for a home darkroom. Then again your darkroom may be quite large.

They do work and work and work, and, work some more.

Anything like that will be getting on and bits and pieces do wear out. Mainly the springs that hold the rollers together, ensuring that they are there and in one piece. From memory there were two together on the ends of the roller gear pack.

Adjustment of the temperature will let you obtain a very good gloss if using high gloss paper. All other paper surfaces also seem to look better when dried with forced heating through machines like these.

From memory these machines run at one metre a minute, or 100cm a minute as it is usually expressed. They can also take surprisingly small pieces of paper. I run very small pieces of paper in my Rowi RC paper dryer diagonally, just as I used to do with my Ilford 1050 paper dryer many years ago.

If you can find the room, the cost is reasonable, it works, then go for it, they are an excellent addition to any darkroom.

I moved on and I am now on my second Rowi, 310mm wide, RC paper dryer. The Rowi units are excellent but they do have one slight problem, their exit rollers are covered in foam. The foam over time deteriorates and they no longer pull the paper through properly. I have been using this unit for the last 5 years with buggered exit rollers, but it still works very well and I see no impediment running this unit with those impaired exit rollers. As an amateur I live with things like this by helping the paper exit the last 1-2 cm out of the machine, where final and absolute drying occurs in the warm air flow emanating from the dryer.

In practice in my darkroom, I place exposed B&W RC paper into my Durst Printo paper processor. It is two bath, developer and fixer. The paper takes 45 seconds in each bath, (bath temperature is 30ºC). The paper then exits the Printo into a tray full of water, I take that paper out after first turning it over to remove the majority of fixer. I then vigorously wash that sheet of paper for approximately 1 minute, then pop it into the Rowi RC dryer.

The Rowi paper dryer is turned on within 15-30 seconds of me placing the paper into the Durst Printo processor, by the time I have finished washing the paper, the Rowi has warmed up and is ready to receive and dry the print.

Within reason, I can look at a completely dry and final looking test print, about 180 seconds after pulling it from the enlarger base board. There really isn’t anything much faster and more pleasant, than having an RC paper dryer in a darkroom and working this way. When doing final prints I have a longer wash period, usually around 2-3 minutes.

The Ilford unit you are looking at, is capable of being operated in exactly the same way. That is how I used it when I had one, which was about 30 years ago.

Mick.

 

[John_A]

Thanks for the replies.
As mentioned, its a rather large machine, and after contemplating my current situation I dont think its worth it, despite beeing a great deal.
Its probably better to save the space for a fb paper dryer, in the end I think that will have a greater impact on the end result than a rc dryer.

Skickat från min D6503 via Tapatalk

 

[aca]

the Rowi units are excellent but they do have one slight problem, their exit rollers are covered in foam. The foam over time deteriorates and ........

I am having this problem with some "foam parts" sticking on the paper..........I am wondering if there is a solution, can the rollers be replaced??

 

[mshchem]

I have a couple Ilford units. Amazing machines. The gloss is amazing, works well with black and white and color. Game changer.

 

[Mick Fagan]

I am having this problem with some "foam parts" sticking on the paper..........I am wondering if there is a solution, can the rollers be replaced??

I haven't ever seen rear foam rollers for sale. What I do is leave the prints at the rear of the dryer where they are under the hot air flow from the dryer, then it is a simple thing to shake the little bits and pieces of foam off of the prints. Eventually the amount of foam gets down to very little coming off; the dryer still works very well with almost no foam on the rear rollers.

Mick.

 

[btaylor]

I got one of the Ilford dryers in a darkroom lot that had deteriorated exit roller foam. I took off all the old foam and wrapped them with self adhesive door and window sealing foam from the hardware store. Works just fine- and I love the dryer, it spits out a perfect dry print in such a short time.