Polishing scanner drum

[erikhatt]

After 3 months with the use of Kami scannerfluid, my drum looks like frosted glass. Is there anyone in Europe who do professionally polishing of scanner drums?

 

[Bruce Watson]

After 3 months with the use of Kami scannerfluid, my drum looks like frosted glass. Is there anyone in Europe who do professionally polishing of scanner drums?

Ah man, you won't like it, but you should probably look through the archives of the yahoo group ScanHi-End. There's been a huge amount of discussion of this Kami induced crazing of scanner drums over the last five+ years. No one has nailed down the cause (best theory is that the high evaporation rate of Kami causes thermal stress (shock) in the acrylic due to making the surface cold while the rest of the acrylic is at room temperature, which in turn causes micro-cracks to form, which multiply over time), and a fair number deny that Kami-crazing even happens. But a lot of people apparently have had this happen to them.

In Europe SDS (Germany) used to refurbish scanner drums; perhaps they still do. But it's not at all cheap. Perhaps your best bet is looking for a used drum in good shape. And use either SDS's Anti-Newton mounting fluid or the Lumina fluid from ScanScience, neither of which has been tagged on the 'net as causing any kind of crazing of scanner drums.

I've been using rebranded SDS products here (as Prazio in NA) for more than six years without a problem. I'm just sayin'...

 

[erikhatt]

Ah man, you won't like it, but you should probably look through the archives of the yahoo group ScanHi-End. There's been a huge amount of discussion of this Kami induced crazing of scanner drums over the last five+ years. No one has nailed down the cause (best theory is that the high evaporation rate of Kami causes thermal stress (shock) in the acrylic due to making the surface cold while the rest of the acrylic is at room temperature, which in turn causes micro-cracks to form, which multiply over time), and a fair number deny that Kami-crazing even happens. But a lot of people apparently have had this happen to them.

In Europe SDS (Germany) used to refurbish scanner drums; perhaps they still do. But it's not at all cheap. Perhaps your best bet is looking for a used drum in good shape. And use either SDS's Anti-Newton mounting fluid or the Lumina fluid from ScanScience, neither of which has been tagged on the 'net as causing any kind of crazing of scanner drums.

I've been using rebranded SDS products here (as Prazio in NA) for more than six years without a problem. I'm just sayin'...

The funny thing is that the micro cracs/fog dissapear when mounting with KAMI, its not seen in the scan. But after the drum is dry again, it appears. Today i applied SDS anti-newton oil on a cloth and "polished" the drum. The cracs/fog dissapeared for 12 hours

 

[Marco B]

The funny thing is that the micro cracs/fog dissapear when mounting with KAMI, its not seen in the scan. But after the drum is dry again, it appears. Today i applied SDS anti-newton oil on a cloth and "polished" the drum. The cracs/fog dissapeared for 12 hours

If the refractive index of the mounting oil and acrylic happen to be about the same, that disappearing would be understandable. It is only when the refractive index of two transparent colourless materials differ significantly that you are likely to see the border regions between the materials, and hence the cracks... Probably these mounting oils were "designed" to closely match the refractive index of film and acrylic.

Probably after 12 hours, the last remains of the oil had evaporated...

 

[lenny]

After 3 months with the use of Kami scannerfluid, my drum looks like frosted glass. Is there anyone in Europe who do professionally polishing of scanner drums?

Your drum shouldn't be polished. It should be chucked... It is likely it was defective from the start, or polished to a temperature that was too high, etc.

I've been using Kami for years with no ill effects. Others have had issues, but I've never heard anyone describe it as you have, so thoroughly covered and in such a short time. I'm not ready to say that Kami never causes a problem - but you're situation is at the far end of the scale, and I don't think its the Kami. (for what its worth.) I even talked to Prazio about this and they suggested that more often its compressed air that damages drums... they didn't have anything disparaging to say about Kami...

I wish you the best of luck getting another drum, I know they aren't cheap...

Lenny