washing print inside the drum

Rafael Saffirio · Jun 12, 2021

Lately I been washing my RA4 prints inside the drum, I came up with the idea after remembering the Ilford's film washing method of filling and inverting the tank 5, 10 and 20 times and changing the water between the inversion cycles. What I do is after pour out the blix fill the drum with 500 ml of water, give it 5 full turns, pour out the water, fill it again 10 turns and then again 20 turns, then I take out the print give it a quick rinse and then hang it.
Do you think this kind of washing is enough???

koraks · Jun 13, 2021

RA4 paper doesn't need the extended wash that fiber based B&W needs. Your wash routine is maybe a bit on the limited side, so I'd suggest adding one or two more cycles, but you don't have to go to extremes with it.

MattKing · Jun 13, 2021

You may wish to take steps to ensure that the wash gets to the back of the prints.
When I do this with black and white RC prints, I rinse in the tube for a minute then complete the wash in a tray. That is mostly, however, to get the tube washed and air drying as soon as possible.

mshchem · Jun 13, 2021

I would give the print a final quick wash in a tray. Nothing elaborate, just rock the print in a tray of fresh water for 30 seconds.

Wayne · Jun 13, 2021

mshchem said:
I would give the print a final quick wash in a tray. Nothing elaborate, just rock the print in a tray of fresh water for 30 seconds.

Since a final wash in tray is only a couple minutes anyway, i would just skip the drum wash completely. It makes no sense to do both. You could also just open the drum and run fresh water into it for a couple minutes. Temp isn't critical so you could just do it under the bathroom sink if running water is in short supply.

brbo · Jun 13, 2021

Rafael Saffirio said:
Lately I been washing my RA4 prints inside the drum...

I've never done it differently.

mshchem · Jun 13, 2021

If you use a commercial roller transport, or minlab as an example, amateur printers probably tend to overwash color prints. Roll paper spends, approximately 45secs in the developer, 45 seconds split between 2 blix baths, and 30 seconds each in 3 consecutive, counter current final rinse/stabilizer baths. There's a squeegee between each bath. The final 3 rinses use modern stabilizer which is nothing but a lot of demineralized water with a tiny amount of Miconazole, antifungal agent. There's very little of this final rinse if any, that goes down the drain, it evaporates when the print goes through the high speed dryer.
Of course it's all timed, and the built in line squeegees make the process very efficient.

Rafael Saffirio · Jun 13, 2021

MattKing said:
You may wish to take steps to ensure that the wash gets to the back of the prints.

the back of the paper was also my concern, but when I take the paper out there are no visible traces of blix color. The added benefit is that the drum is already washed for the next print.

DREW WILEY · Jun 22, 2021

Other than little 8X10 test strip drums, all my larger drums have thin ribs lining the inside diameter to help solutions get behind as well as in front of the print. After the Blix step, I rinse the print via drum rotation for five or six dump-refill cycles of water, about two minutes each. That might be a tad of overkill; but it does make me feel more confident about the effectiveness of the wash. I want distinctly better than commercial standards in every aspect of color printing. Then when I pull the print out of the drum, I briefly and gently rinse it off both sides with the sink hose before placing it on the squeegee board.

washing print inside the drum

Rafael Saffirio

koraks

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MattKing

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mshchem

Wayne

brbo

mshchem

Rafael Saffirio

DREW WILEY

washing print inside the drum

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