Ikea Trip

  
    On Tuesday night John and I went to a HVAC lecture at the Edison Education Center in Irwindale. We were already in Diamond Bar so figured we would check it out. The food was amazing!! I swear this lecture was for free, but it was like fine dinning! Anywho we stayed for the lecture and it was a great review. On our way back home I asked John if we could swing into IKEA. On Alex Timmermans blog he mentioned a super cheap plate rack he had found at IKEA. I ran to the kitchen knick knack aisle and there it was for a whole $5.99 my perfect plate rack! Also, for $3.99 each I purchased my new silver nitrate bottles.
    Today I will be filtering my silver bath and working on more Holga plates. Hope it goes well.

Extended Dunker

     Here she is extended and ready to go! Cost me a whopping $4.61. So the silver is on its way and the process shall begin all over again. I also noticed that my husband's dremel can cut through 1/8th inch acrylic. I did not realize it and assumed that it would crack the acrylic. Well to my surprise it cut like butter! Another alternative would have been to buy a remnant 1/8th acrylic sheet and have him cut me out another dunker. But since I already had this original dunker when I bought my first silver tank I decided to just go with it. 

     I plan to make more tanks for my new dark box and this first prototype was a very good success! No leaks and affordable for me. If I were to change anything I would probably make the tank out of red acrylic and add a lid as well. I do not know if I were to leave a plate in my silver bath, in my current dark box, if it would become fogged. I have two openings for my hands in the box and when my hands are submerged it is light tight.... I bet if I were to just roll up the openings in the box it should be ok. Another thing to think about... now off to shoot some flowers!

Here is the 4.5" extension piece.

Connected and waiting for the support piece.

I had an extra piece of acrylic so to add more support we glued it on top of the extension piece and it overlapped onto the connect pieces to add stability.

Drying in the sun and waiting to be used.

Silver Tank Cont.

     Just ordered the extra silver from Artcraft Chemicals and I am ready for next weeks VINTAGE VALENTINE portraits at the Folk Tree. Before I processed my payment I measured how much water my tank can hold. I added a piece of 7.5x9.5 glass along with the plate "dunker". I do not know the official word used for the spatula shaped acrylic holder that allows you to pull the plate out and in to the bath.

      Anways, since both of those have weight it means less silver and less distilled water needed. In the end I calculated my tank to hold 1200mL of water. This much water will cover the plate perfectly without spilling. In addition, my dunker was from my original smaller tank. Since S & W Plastics would charge me and arm and a leg to make another one I have come up with a simple solution.

        Here is what I mean by my plate dunker. It is to short for my new silver tank and I have to go back to S&W tomorrow to have a 1.5x4.5 inch piece of 1/8th acrylic cut to add more length. It should cost me under $8.00. A new whole plate silver bath tank costs over $100, not including shipping. So far I am in under $20.00.