Washing FB paper without a washer

[bwrules]

Hi. I have been washing my paper in a tray with water trickling over it overnight. I change water several times during the first few minutes, and then just leave it. Is it all right to do it this way, or it's not archival? Thanks.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

You can test the efficacy of your method with a residual hypo check. You can make it up yourself with silver nitrate and acetic acid. http://www.freelists.org/post/pure-silver/residual-hypo-test-instructions,3 As you only need a drop at a time I only make up enough for an 8ml dropper bottle from the Formulary - it lasts me a long time, about 160 tests worth.

 

[Tom Nutter]

I have a 16X20 tray with several holes drilled in one end of the bottom that works pretty well. You can angle it with something underneath so the holes are elevated and it stays largely filled while having a constant flow of water that can be controlled by how far you turn on the spigot.

 

[Bill Burk]

Does your paper sometimes curl into the air and not get any water for hours? Then that part of the print would not be washed well and you would have stains, foxing or other problems in a few years.

 

[Tom Nutter]

you can sometimes remedy that by turning the prints face-down.....but yes, they sometimes float to the top.

 

[bwrules]

I always put them face down, but they do float to the top.

 

[bwrules]

Is the residual hypo check mentioned available commercially?

 

[PVia]

You can do the water exchange a few times and let it sit for an hour, do another exchange or two to rinse and you should be good...do the hypo check to be sure. Overnight is overkill and could be detrimental for some papers.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Two words:

Tray Siphon

Works great!

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I agree about tray siphons. They're getting hard to find. The main thing is not to crowd the FB prints and allow them to circulate in the tray. I started out with a tray siphon then switched over to a stainless steel tumbling print washer that I got for free.

 

[bwrules]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be looking to get the siphon and hypo test.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

You can build your own siphon with a couple of pieces of 1/4" tubing and a garden hose if you can't find the original.

The idea is to pump fresh water in at a corner of the tray, enough to make the prints slowly circulate in the tray. Use a big tray, like a 20x24 or something if you have a lot of small prints, or a couple of 16x20s.
Then you want to continuously extract the excess water and dump it out at the same rate as the water flowing in so that you keep an even level of water in the tray (a couple of inches deep).

But if you can find an original tray siphon, that is easier, obviously.