Storage Between Printing Sessions of Glass Neg Holders

shoot6x7 · Dec 18, 2015

I'm trying to determine which approach is best to keep my glass neg holders clean.

1) installed in the neg carrier in the Enlarger with Dust cover over the Enlarger.
2) neg carrier with glass holders in a zip lock bag (resealable bag) in drawer.
3) neg carrier and glass holders in separate zip-loc bags

I want to do 1) but will do 2) if it keeps the carriers more free of dust.

Your practices and experience will be considered !

Thanks,
Ron

StephenT · Dec 18, 2015

option 2 is what I do.

Sirius Glass · Dec 18, 2015

I have a plastic box for storing all the film holders including the one with glass. The box seal tightly and everything stays dust free.

Ronald Moravec · Dec 19, 2015

They all go in a plastic box. Glass carriers protected with small bubble wrap bags or make some from old sweat shirt. Cardboard/tape sleeve in a pinch. Wrap the glass ones in fabric.

Mine have original boxes.

hoffy · Dec 19, 2015

Stay in the enlarger....

shoot6x7 · Dec 19, 2015

For the ziploc, plastic box type solution is it possible that static will be a problem, hence dust ?

Rich Ullsmith · Dec 19, 2015

If I am going to spend an evening on a negative, why not clean the carrier before use? It only takes a minute, and then it's definitely clean.

ic-racer · Dec 19, 2015

Those options are probably all equal in terms of safety. I thought this thread was going to be about if one should store the glass carriers with a negative in place.

bence8810 · Dec 20, 2015

Rich Ullsmith said:
If I am going to spend an evening on a negative, why not clean the carrier before use? It only takes a minute, and then it's definitely clean.

Hello,

How do you clean your carrier?
I haven't been able to clean it properly - or perhaps I do but as I move about while fitting the negative - dust reappears.

Is there some magic way of cleaning it so it'd keep dust away for a while?
I have started printing big and because of the above mentioned dust issue I am now using glass-less carriers. The only problem with these is that I can't keep the enlarger on for an extended period as the negative would pop and I lose focus.

Thanks,
Ben

Rich Ullsmith · Dec 21, 2015

Aha! carefully. I have a nice antistatic cloth used for nothing but this. 1) Wipe inner bottom glass, inspect under lamp 2) Wipe inner top glass, inspect. Sandwich together. 3) Inspect and dust negative, insert in carrier. 4) Wipe bottom outer glass, inspect. Place on neg stage.

My glass carrier has a frosted top, so dust on top is not an issue, but wipe it anyway.

A few weeks ago, I was watching an ancient electric anti-static brush on ebay . . .not alone so it seems, I think it went from $20 to $220 in the last minute of bidding. Anybody know anything about that?

georg16nik · Dec 21, 2015

bence8810 said:
Hello,

How do you clean your carrier?
I haven't been able to clean it properly - or perhaps I do but as I move about while fitting the negative - dust reappears.

Is there some magic way of cleaning it so it'd keep dust away for a while?
I have started printing big and because of the above mentioned dust issue I am now using glass-less carriers. The only problem with these is that I can't keep the enlarger on for an extended period as the negative would pop and I lose focus.

Thanks,
Ben

You can get one of these anti-static ground conductive clean brush sets available in electric parts stores, I am sure you have plenty of options around you.
Also, is your enlarger chassis grounded, besides the ground of the plug?

I wipe my glass neg holder with antistatic cloth and brushes and occasionally with a bit distilled water + glass cleaner.
Running air purifier helps too, nothing fancy but one of these for ~ $100.

winger · Dec 21, 2015

I avoid plastic as it's a magnet for dust. I keep my glass holder in its original paper folder in a drawer. I use lint-free Kimwipes to wipe it when necessary. Knock on wood, no big issues, yet.

As far as negatives popping, put it in place, turn on to focus and let it sit and warm up. THEN focus and get your print as soon after as possible. A cold negative will pop when it warms up, but it takes longer to go back as it cools. At least in my experience. YMMV.

cliveh · Dec 21, 2015

Go glassless and you wont have the problem.

Sirius Glass · Dec 21, 2015

cliveh said:
Go glassless and you wont have the problem.

Then I would have problems printing single frame negatives [18mm X 24mm], and the panorama negatives [24mm X 59mm]. I have had no problems with the glass negative holder because I use good photo lab techniques.

bence8810 · Dec 21, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
I have had no problems with the glass negative holder because I use good photo lab techniques.

Hello,

Do you mind explaining those photo lab techniques?

I would like to use the glass carrier but always a hassle (I found) to clean them and make sure nothing's on it.

Glassless = 2 surfaces
Glass = 6 surfaces

Ben

Sirius Glass · Dec 21, 2015

See the cleaning instructions in post #10 as an example. Post #3 contains the information about how I store all negative holders.

Storage Between Printing Sessions of Glass Neg Holders

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