Boiling water to lessen impurities?

Hi All.

Thanks for those who responded to my posts.

My materials; paper is almost a year old and the chemistry probably a few months or so. I did a check on my equipment and I have checked the ideas that one responder had about alignment of enlarger, leaks, etc. Everything passes on that. I'm thinking maybe it could be the water? Will boiling water take out most of the impurities? Buying water is alot, like $3.00 a jug here for an average brand, evian being more. I mixed new fixer up and I still get the same results, unevenness, patched results. My print results are lifeless in detail and tone. Im not able to do the zone system test in with my materials, the consistency is totally off on the zone tests as well. I have also replaced the enlarger lamp and I still get the same results.

Here is what I'm using: HC 110 (dil b) Indicater stop bath Rapid fix by kodak hypo clear by kodak photo flo-2000 dektol 1:2 for the printing.

Processing is with regular water, no filtering: Development of tri-x 320 rated at 200 ISO

presoak: 1:00 constant agitation 5:30 minutes at 68 degrees +/- 0.5 deg Initial agitation at first 30 seconds, then 4 inversions every 30 seconds Stop: 30 seconds continuous mild agitation 1/4 oz to 16 of water Fixing: 7:00 with fresh bath same agitation as with film developing rinse: 1:00 continuous Hypo clear: 2:00 constant mild agitation, 1:4 dilution Wash: 10:00 from sink, mild pressure, refill and empty rate about 12 times per minute at 10:00 Photo-flo 1:200 at 1:00, mild agitation for 30 seconds initially then a 30 second rest period.

film is then removed from reel then hung in a dustfree spot in the bathroom, drying is done by air, usually a good 2 hours for air dry.

Printing: Omega b66 enlarger with ph140/75w bulb. Printing for a grade three contrast, no filtering in drawer. Paper is Ilford multi 3 vc glossy paper.

Printing in dektol for 2:00 continuous tray agitation. factorial development is applied after a certain amount of print developed per solution. Stop: 30 seconds 1/4 to per 16 oz of water. Fixing: 3:00 minutes in rapid fix 1:7 dilution no hypo clear all rc wash: 5 minutes 65 - 75 degrees refill rate of wash bin is two times per minute.

drying: hair dryer on medium, full dry in 90 seconds.

I have tried reducing the grade of the paper and get complete deadness in the tones.

If anyone has any suggestions to this problem that would be reat.

Thank you all for your time in reading this letter.

Robert D.

[ Previous | Next ]