Removing burnt print "gunk" from IR tube.

Somehow as I was printing earlier...; an 8x10 sheet of Kodak Supra Endura became stuck around a roller underneath the IR dryer tube in my Thermaphot ACP-505. Thankfully as I was in the darkroom I could turn the machine off after smelling smoke, not once the paper had caught fire which it seemed close to as a section of the paper had been burnt apart.

On closer inspection once everything had cooled down I removed the heating unit and observed a line of burnt print emulsion / gunk attached to the glass infrared drying tube. Aside from finding and purchasing a replacement tube, does anyone have experience of cleaning these tubes?

Tom.

I would consider letting it run, and periodically gently scrape the crumbs off, as they turn to carbon, until you are back to a clean tube. I know this is easier said than done, and don't go giving yourself a sunburn in the process. The smell will be awful for a while as well.

I find that things get stuck in my roller processors a lot less often when I feed the paper in at a slight angle, taking care to not let the edge of the paper run beyond the edge of the rollers.

I also have an old stash of 16x20 colour shifted ep/2 paper that I run though the processors occassionally right side up and upside down as a poor mans equivalent to claen out sheets, to try to get gunkies off the rollers before they stick to the prints.

Which roller transport machine do you use?

Tom.

I would take out the lamp, take off the residue with a sharp knife and the rest with some aqueous cleaning agent with mild abrasives as one uses in the kitchen to clean glass, tiles etc. Then rinse all thoroughly with water and finally clean the glass tube with some solvent.

EDIT:

There could be the issue of a UV-blocking coating. But to my knowledge an anti-UV feature is quite new to incandescant lamps and achieved by changing the type of glass.
(There is an anti-UV feature on many flash tubes though.)

AgX said:

I would take out the lamp, take off the residue with a sharp knife and the rest with some aqueous cleaning agent with mild abrasives as one uses in the kitchen to clean glass, tiles etc. Then rinse all thoroughly with water and finally clean the glass tube with some solvent.

Click to expand...

Taking off the deposit with a small craft knife worked well; the infrared drying tube is working without issue. However, I do have an issue with the heat exchangers not operating, which I should probably discuss in another thread.


Tom

I usually run a fujimoto cp-31 with a w/d module. It is good to 12", and only uses 2l of chemistry per tank

I have a 12" durst/thermaphot RCP-20 dry to damp that neds a separate wash that I use very irregularly. (At the moment its' pump and heaters are installed in a Wing Lynch to temper and circulate a water bath reservoir.)

Restored, and fully functional and sitting idle in my garage for the last year, there is a Kreonite 19" dry to dry machine. I do not presently have a need for the size or volume pf prints that this commecial lab sized unit can crank out. I am casually trying to see if any schools around here have a use for it.