William, that's very helpful, thank you!
John Coyle
Brisbane, Australia
----- Original Message ----- From: "William Robb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <pentax-discuss@pdml.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 10:39 AM
Subject: Re: Cleaning slides
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Coyle"
Subject: Cleaning slides
I have been given several dozen slides dating back to the 1960's which were water damaged some years ago, and have been asked to see if they can be cleaned up. Many of them have emulsion damage as a result of the immersion, and they will never be fully recoverable, but there are quite a few where there is just a layer of grime to remove.
My thoughts are:
1. Use just a proprietary slide cleaning fluid.
2. Try a warm water rinse first to see if I can float off most of the debris, then use the cleaner.
3. Just use the rinse.
Anyone have any experience with this, or can offer other suggestions, please?
First, air gun them to remove the loose grot
You will have to demount them,
After that, put a few at a time into a good sized dish (a pyrex casserole is good) that has an inch or so of lukewarm water, just warm enough that it is comfortable to keep hands in that has had a dollop of either Photo Flo or a really good dish detergent (the purer the better). Soak half dozen or so at a time, whatever you think is comforatble.
Don't dither about sliding the film into the cleaner, just slide them under the surface, and make sure they stay there.
Let your fingers soak as well, you want the skin of your fingertips and thumbs to be nice and soft.
After everything is nice and soaked, swirl each slide around the dish a bit, don't let them touch each other, the edges are sharper than the emulsion is hard. This will knock off the easily dislodged grot. Then, you can GENTLY rub much of the rest of the grime off the emulsion and base.
Rinse several times in fresh water, finishing with either a distilled water rinse (two baths please) or a Photo Flo rinse.
Devise a way in advance to dry the things.
If you have a table saw, you can run a few kerfs down a scrap of wood and let the transparencies sit in the kerf to dry.
I would inspect carefully as I went along to ensure that no damage was being done.
William Robb
