I am looking for a better way to keep the Ambrotypes plates wet during transfer times to washing.
I currently use a system of cement making trays stacked and loaded with plates, each tray has about 1 1/2 inches of water in it. I can carry the trays in the darkroom trailer Fanny or on the deck of the flatbed BEAST truck. The system works quite well, thou there is splash and some water leaks out. The down side is the water sloshing about sometimes damages the sensitive collodion emulsion. This last trip I lost one plate that way.
My wet plate books recommend coating the Ambros with a 50/50 mix of water and glycerin. I tried that for the first time yesterday and it worked fine. It might become my preferred method to transport wet plates. The problem is the cost, 1000 ml of vegetable glycerin costs about $25 CAD.
Can I devise a cheaper alternative? I did that with many other chemicals in the process.
I was looking online last night for something that might work. I came up with mineral oil (baby oil). A 590 ml bottle of “Equate Baby Oil” from Walmart costs $6.20 CAD. That means it is about 1/2 the cost of vegetable glycerin. I will buy a bottle and test it next shoot. If this works, baby oil will become my “keep the plate wet till washing” method. If not I might have to go with the more expensive glycerin.
 |
| Cement trays loaded with plates. |
