plant press for drying FB prints flat?

[kmallick]

I have been mostly wet printing on RC prints. I decided to give FB prints a try last night. Printing session was fun. However, the long washing routine and setting them up for drying late night was a chore. And then (not that I was unprepared) after watching them dry like potato chips this morning, I decided to read up on different techniques of drying FB prints.

According to this APUG post, it seems that slow drying (over days) of the FB prints between stacks of corrugated ventilator sheets have worked well.
http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/5...er-flat-4.html

In that line of thought, has anyone tried some off-the-shelf plant dryers like these to dry and flatten FB prints?

These plant dryers seem to come with a stack of corrugated ventilator and blotter boards in addition to platens and straps with turnbuckles to put pressure on the platens. I saw several online biological supply and plant supply stores selling them. The 12"x18" size is ideal for me as it can fit two 8x10's or one 11x14 per interleaved board. If needed one can insert some polyester or Tyvek interface sheet in between the boards and the prints for extra protection against the emulsion.

Any experience or thoughts?

 

[shadowfox]

May want to replace the corrugated boards with acid-free foam boards (like Bienfang, etc.).
At least on the sides that came in contact with the emulsion (and silver).

But it should work.

 

[taylan]

I saw same threat at Apug and after that I searched about this. I didn't try it before but it seams logical to me, too. The only problem for me is finding a blotter board. I am searching for alternatives. May be I can try thick watercolor paper.

 

[kmallick]

I think that if we use some sort of interleaving sheet like Tyvek, Reemay or Polyester sheets between the emulsion and the corrugated boards, that should work. I am even considering the inkjet polyester film from Arista as the inerleaving sheet. Here are some ideas of these sheets that I have collected through research:

Tyvek
Reemay
Polyester

Of course, I am open to some other economical options if possible. But overall this seems very sensible.

 

[kmallick]

The only problem for me is finding a blotter board. I am searching for alternatives. May be I can try thick watercolor paper.

The blotter boards comes with the 'plant press'. See here:

https://www.bioquip.com/Search/DispProduct.asp?pid=3115

or here

http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/p...g_Page.asp?mi=5288&title=standard+plant+press

 

[taylan]

How about glassine bag? it may work. here is link:

http://www.macodirect.de/analog-auxiliary-glassine-bags-c-567_673.html