Lithium Palladium

This last weekend I did some Palladium printing using Lithium Pall. I bought it to do a different process and one person mentioned they used it for there regular Pall / Plat printing. So I thought I would give it a try. My prints came out very nice. They are on the warmer side than the others and the following changes were noticed.
1) exposure times seem to be the same ( did a print with the same time as before and it came out the same density)
2) Believe it or not I find you have to develop it for the full 2 mins., that I notices that some tones did get darker from the immediate change till 1 .5 to 2 mins. Must be a slower change over.
3) Seems to clear faster and after the first tray all the stain is gone.
4) I use Potass Oxilate developer at 70 to 75 deg. and get a nice warm print.
These are things I found and just wanted to share with you. plus I think the Lit. pall is cheaper. maybe I think..
mike andersen

I experimented with lithium palladium also using potassium oxilate dev at 130f for one and a half min with excellent results. The tones are rich and the color is a beautiful coco brown.

You can use many alternative versions of the palladium metal salt in DOP pt/pd printing. Lithium palladium works very well, as does ammonium palladium. Cesium palladium gives a really warm yellowish print, but has a tendency to solarize, and double coating is a good idea. Each version has a slightly different tone and dmax. The speed differences are minimal between the various salts of palladium. Extended development is a good idea for most palladium printing because it will assist in the clearing of the print. The developer will get sludgier more quickly, but it is worth it to ensure the prints are cleared adequately.

There should be no significant difference in price between lithium palladium, ammonium palladium and sodium palladium since the major cost in all three is the palladium, not the salt.

BTW, price of platinum and palladium salts should be going down if there is any response to world market prices.

Sandy King

michael9793 said:

plus I think the Lit. pall is cheaper. maybe I think..
mike andersen

Click to expand...

Sandy,
$221 per ounce. Is that $7.79 per gram. I may be ready to see if there are those out there ready to do another group buy. I think the last time I went in with the group we paid in the $9.00 range. Any interest, palladium users? Tav

I guess a significant industrial use of palladium and platinum is in catalytic converters in auto exhaust systems. Big recession, fewer cars sold - makes sense the demand would drop and cause the price to fall. There is a platinum lining to every dark cloud, I suppose.

A platinum lining except that, at least in my life, the economy has affected my income to the point that I still can't afford it.
Dennis

It appears that the major spike in the price of platinum and palladium some months ago was due to the fact that these metals are mined at only one or two locations in the world, in Russia, and they were shut down for a few months due to some type of supply problem. Now the major mine in Russia is back in production.

Sandy

Has anyone gotten response from Englehard recently? Several months back I left several messages with my contact there and never heard back. They seem to have been bought by another company.

Should have bought some a few weeks ago, but still much better than early this year.