Digital BW, The Print

This morning I coated my first Eclipse 16x20 (17x22 paper) with a wire-wound
rod and polyurethane.  The process appears to scale-up to this level without
too much trouble.

The main problem I had in setting up is that I have no totally-flat counter
top.  (I use a plywood sheet over my darkroom wet-sink as a working space.)
I ended up using two 22x28 picture-frame glass sheets on top of this plywood
to try to smooth the surface.  I found that to get the surface flat I needed
to put some pieces of paper between the two in certain areas.  I used a good
straight-edge to be sure the surface was flat.  With that on the top glass,
I tried to slip a piece of paper between the straight-edge and the glass.
If I could, I knew I had a low spot where I needed to put some paper between
the two pieces of glass.

At any rate, having set up the counter yesterday, the process of coating the
16x20 today was rather easy.  From taping down the top of the print to
finishing clean-up took 10 minutes.

The results are not 100% perfect yet.  Looking at reflected light off the
surface of the print, the coating shows some signs of unevenness -- slight
"banding" from the rod not being even against the print.  This is probably,
in part, my counter top problem.  Also, I did not follow my 8x10 procedure
in that I didn't have a couple of pieces of copy paper under the print.
Some butcher paper might be the answer here -- and also help with clean-up.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com