Digital BW, The Print

Paul,

> 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.
> 

Why do you use a wire wraped rod? Have you considered using a glass 
tube? These are commonly used to coat alternative process emulsions 
onto paper.

How do you clean your rod and how do you introduce the urethane onto 
the rod?

> 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.  


As someone else already mentioned use a heavy piece of glass plate 
for coating. This provides a very flat surface to coat on. Place a 
towel (or sheets of news print) underneath the glass to provide 
stability.

> 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.  

Using a glass rod will eliminate this, an even bead of coating can be 
gotten by slightly lifting the rod before pushing forward. 

Interesting process, we will be interested to hear of your progress.

Don Bryant