Sunning and Filtering Silver Nitrate

I am sunning and filtering my silver nitrate solutions. I have somewhere between 13 and 14 litres of the stuff. 

Picked up a second daylight light source a week back. Got it delivered to the house for $30 CAD(2nd hand). I like my first daylight source for this type of sunning. Hopefully the second light will work as well.

Sunning this way has benefits There is no need to filter while sunning for bugs, no need to worry about about the valuable  silver being outside. I can simply place the glass lab bottles next to the lights in one of my darkrooms (house-trailer) and forget about it. I usually sun for 3 or 4 days. The glass bottles let me see my silver clearly, allowing me to judge its quality. The 3-4 days of sunning  allows for clearing of excess alcohol without needing to transfer the silver to a wider mouth glass container. 

I changed my filtering material from cotton to coffee filters. And moved from 3 funnels to 2. The idea is to speed up my filtering. This is especially important when I am in the field and have time limits on how long I can stay at a location. 

Sunning the silver with my 2 (1 new) daylight light lamps

Filtering silver through to funnels with coffee filters

Top coffee filter and filtration. The black is the residue sunned out of the silver nitrate solution.

Honey Testing Conclusions

Honey testing conclusions.  After several days of making 11x14 ambrotypes  then test storing them before the final wash using various dilutions of honey. I think I have found my answers.

When I mixed my honey 2 and 3 parts water to 1 part honey the plates dried out. The honey content was too low. When I tried to do a final wash on the plates the collodion emulsion separated from the glass and was destroyed.

I upped the honey content in my dilution. First I did 1-1 honey and water then I did 2 parts honey to 1 part water. That last dilution seemed to work well. After 3 days drying, the plate was wet at first then sort of a glossy dry took over. After soaking in water for over 24 hours the emulsion did not lift off. I followed with a 2 hour wash and dry and the plates seemed normal (see photo). It was as if i never covered it with honey.

I will use a  2 parts honey to 1 part water dilution. If I mix 300 ml honey with 150mls of water that should make enough COATER to cover 3-4 11x14 inch plates. 

I believe  honey will be cheaper for me than glycogen to buy and use. Also kinda like the old school part of it. A bit messy to use but this should work. 

Note* An online Facebook friend told me honey cost $20 USD a litre in the UK. $7.33 CAD in Canada and $20 USD in thee UK. Wow,  that is a substantial difference. His price makes no honey buying sense. For him glycerine and honey are about the same cost, so you got to go with thee easier to use glycerine. For me thou the cheaper Alberta price for honey, makes it the more economic choice. Honey will be especially beneficial when I am working with very large plates (24x24 inches and larger) in far of locations where I must do the final wash a day or 2 later at another location. Honey could be a project saver for me.

The dried platee after honey coating and final wash

Glycerine

The cheapest price I can find honey hear, $733 CAD per litre

Added an Aperture To My Smaller Project Lens For the 14x14 Inch Camera

 

Video: Back in the Trailer, Making Ambrotypes

 Back in the wetplate trailer!! 2c outside, 10c in the trailer. Also testing the honey mix to keep the plates wet. 1/1, 1/2 and 1/3 honey to water.

Ambrotype Photo Making Setup

Got this little top bar (Tripod was mine) for $30 CAD tonight, online via Amazon these things run $83 new and $39 used with a $27 shipping cost to Edmonton. I played around a bit with it tonight and it should work well with a iPhone or a small digi camera. I will use this set up to photography my 11x14 inch to 24x24 inch Ambrotype plates. I just need to place the glass under the camera, light it and photograph away. I will use this set up to prepare photo submissions,  creating photos for the webpages etc. 

 

Trailer Upgrades!

Should be able to make some Ambrotypes next week! 

Have done many wet plate darkroom trailer improvements. Added and secured 2-30lb propane tanks, I hope they will not be stolen again. Added a large second hand cooler ($25) for all my liquid chemicals (Vinegars, Alcohol and Distilled Water) and finished the battery lid which allows more efficient storage of my trays.

New table top storage space on top of the battery lid/cover!

New second hand Coleman cooler for liquid chemistry

My new locked down propane tanks!

Propane Bottles Back on the Darkroom Trailer, Fanny

I replaced the stolen propane bottles and replaced the damaged propane trailer stand. I locked everything up with a 15 foot chain and lock. The whole setup cost over $350! Hope it is not all stolen again. I need the tanks to run the furnace to shoot in the winter weather of Canada.

Chained together and to the trailer.

Large Coleman Cooler for $25 CAD

Picked up a large 2nd hand Coleman Cooler for $25 yesterday. I will try using it to safely carry chemicals, vinegar and alcohol in the darkroom trailer. Will play with it today, try to set it up to be functional in the space. 

Note* This cooler compliments the super large one I got from work for free (used to carry 4-5 litre bottles  of silver!).

Will store all my liquids, vinegar, distilled water and alchohal in the new cooler.

Scavenge-Repair Day!

AMBROTOS KANATA is a very expensive project. Photographing Canada on glass cost lots of doe!! To help save on costs I have to work as cheaply as I can manage without sacrificing the quality of the Ambrotypes.

Today was a day where I did some scavenging and some repairs. On the scavenging side of things I took a bunch of broken glass and recut it to smaller usable sizes. So broken 11x14,14x14 and 24x24 inch glass became 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 inch plates. On the repair thingy, I fixed (broken bottom) and painted a damaged 20x24 inch silver tank and also repaired a broken 4x5/8x10 inch drying rack.

I should be able to reuse everything this coming shooting season. Money saved!

Note* The propane tank trailer attachment assembly arrives tomorrow. Hopefully I can get everything up and running soon. If I do, I will be one step closer to making Ambrotypes.!! I am excited to get back at!! Creating beauty will be a relief (no bad dreams) after the recent emotionally difficult images UNDER THE FREEWAY.

Drying Rack

New Plates

Repaired 20x24 Silver Tank Box

The Need For Power!

 One of the problems of doing wet plate in the field in remote areas of Canada is that you need power to run pumps, exhaust fans, cooling fans, timers etc.

How to do I get power? 3 different ways. I use small 20 volt rechargeable batteries connected to a 200 watt inverters. I also have 2 big Jackery power banks.

The most important way I get power thou is to use car batteries (not the best battery but the cheapest). The first year I had 1 - 12 volt car battery system hooked up, then the year after that went to 2 batteries running in parallel. This year will do 4 batteries in parallel. All that means is you basically have 1 big battery to draw from.

Here is what it looks like. Also built boxes for the batteries and lid-table top that I can stack trays etc on to use the space more efficiently.

Note* I have the option to recharge all the batteries via Solar Power but that takes a LONG time. I most often recharge when I have a power source at a campground.

Newly built table top lid for 4 battery parallel set up

4 Batteries in Parallel!

Will run 4 batteries in parallel as one of my trailer power sources this year. I was thinking I might stop using this setup this yeast to allow fort more counter space. Then I accidentally ended up with 2 extra car batteries so decided to go all in this way. 4 batteries running as 1 big battery.

The new battery set up

New Battery Box

 Made a new wooden battery box today. I will use it for batteries #3 and 4. They are part of my parallel  battery power set up in the trailer.

Box for batteries 3 and 4 in trailer

Trailer Upgrades

 Doing more work on the wet plate trailer today. 

Am replacing the stolen propane tanks, lost lots to the thief. 2 30lb tanks ($210 CAD), new tank stand, other one damaged during theft ($85), Propane ($80) and chains and a lick to secure everything from further theft ($60). With the furnace I can make Ambrotypes in winter. I will flow the plates outside, use coolers and a newly built floor exhaust fan to help reduce dangerous fumes.

I will run 4 car batteries in parallel to give me a longer power source when parked in remote areas. Added 2 older batteries from the truck this year. Car batteries are not ideal but they are cheaper and what I have is available for free. I think i need to build a box out of wood for the two new batteries. Last time i bought a plastic one off Ebay (double battery box, see pictures) but these things are too expensive. 

I also fixed up the sink, which needed lots of work. My wet plate trailer darkroom sink really takes a beating when I travel with the trailer. Yesterday I did a bunch of repair work on it. I retightened the faucet nuts as the faucet was jiggling badly. I also put screws on a 2x6 board under one of the sink legs as the tip had broken down causing the sink to lean forward and to the right. Finally I resecured the sink to the wall using straps and wire. Hopefully it will be good now for a year or so.

I need to carry repair supplies and tools for the trailer so I can fix things up on the road, especially when I am up in Northern Canada making Ambrotypes. The roads are rough in parts of Canada, causing havoc inside and outside the trailer.

In the back of the trailer I used a cardboard shipping box to store a backup Silver Tank (20x24 inches). Yesterday I built a wooden box to replace it. I also need to repair the tank box as the bottom has fallen out.

With more shooting time and more dustant travel in the trailer I have refined and upgraded things. I now use either plastic coolers (collodion, silver, vinegar, alcohol) , plastic boxes (supplies and lab tools-jugs-graduates-funnels) or hard sturdy wooden boxes (silver tanks-sometimes holding silver) to carry everything. 

With practice everything is becoming better, safer and more efficient.  Leading to what I hope are better Ambrotypes. In the end fall that really matters is matters is the work created!

Exhaust fans

Trailer storage and work

Sink Work!

My wet plate trailer darkroom sink really takes a beating when I travel with the trailer. Yesterday I did a bunch of repair work on it. I retightened the faucet nuts as the faucet was jiggling badly. I also placed screws in a wood 2x6 under one of the legs as the tip had broken down causing the sink to lean forward and to the right. Finally I resecured the sink to the wall using straps and wire. Hopefully it will be good now for a year or so.

Note* I need to carry repair supplies and tools for the trailer so I can fix things up on the road, especially when I am up in Northern Canada making Ambrotypes. The roads are rough in parts of Canada, causing havoc inside the trailer.

New sink set up

Silver Tank Storage Box

In my wet plate darkroom trailer beside the sink I have a cardboard foam filled shipping box that I store my 20x24 inch silver tank in. The shipping box is the original one the Czech builder used to send me the tank. 

After 2-3 years that box is a  soggy whipped up mess. Today Using my new fancy woodworking shop I whipped up a quick WOODEN box to replace it. Much more solid and sturdy, get easy to do.

Will place the funky green painted box next to the sink in the trailer tomorrow. It should provide many years off good service.

Note*  I also need to fix the silver box itself as the bottom wood piece has fallen out!

 

Original crappy cardboard shipping box              

The wood box I made to replace it

The old plywood was a bit derormed, from dads days

Silver 20x24 tank box a lovely shade of green.