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Flat prints


Don'tknowmuch

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Evening all. The day I sort out my proper darkroom draws ever nearer, but in the meantime I'm keen to find out how I can get FB prints to dry flat.

It must be possible, but I don't know how. If it involves buying some equipment I'd also appreciate knowing what to get.

Thanks,

Jim.

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Evening all. The day I sort out my proper darkroom draws ever nearer' date=' but in the meantime I'm keen to find out how I can get FB prints to dry flat.

It must be possible, but I don't know how. If it involves buying some equipment I'd also appreciate knowing what to get.

Thanks,

Jim.[/quote']

 

Hang them up back to back to dry, that's it very simple and don't glaze. Film and Darkroom User - Powered by vBulletin

This is a great forum which will give you a huge knowledge base at your finger tips

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tape them to glass or an old basswood drawing board if you have one. Then cut off the tape residue.

 

A blotter roll, not book, if you can find one. Rolls have the corrigated board interleaved with blotters.

 

A drier that interleaves corrigated board with blotter pairs. A fifty year old Burke and James is my prized possesion and it came from a garage sale for $15.

 

I have tried everything else without sucess, flat beds, small drums, screens, blotters, counter mounting, hanging, with/without fans/ heat. They all let the edges go wavy producing compound curves that will not flatten because the edges dry faster than the center.

 

Forgot, the large drum driers also work. They are 3 feet in diameter and that was a 1960 college darkroom. All the serious pros used them.

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I have tried all the above methods but I have had the best results by drying my prints on a screen emulsion up and after the prints are dry I place them in a hot dry mount press for a minute and then place them between mount boards with a weight on top to cool. Make sure the weight is evenly distributed over the prints. I use old text books as a weight. If you don't have a dry mount press you can place the dried prints between the weighted dry mount boards and wait a week and they will eventully flatten. Also a broken dry mount press can be used as a cold press instead of weights. Used dry mount presses can be found at a good price if you look around.

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