DIY Mayer Rod for Coating Carbon Tissues, Emulsions - Meyer, Metering, Wire-Wound Bar

[holmburgers]

What got me thinking about making one of these tools was this video posted by Charles Berger on the UltraStable thread, showing Tod Gangler coating a color-carbon tissue in a most simplistic and perfect manner using a Mayer rod (Meyer, metering, bar, etc...). See 0:34

This was new to me, but these coating rods are elegantly simple in their functionality. A rod is wound with a wire, and the diameter of the wire is directly proportional to the coating thickness. A definite volume of a liquid emulsion is pushed into the valleys between the circular wires and as it passes, these liquid peaks spread out and make a very even coating.

For some eye candy, see here... http://www.rdspecialties.com/wirewoundrods.html

According to this informative web page, "Mathematical calculation indicates that the wet film coating thickness is 0.173 times the wire diameter."

The example in the video is a #200, laying down a wet film thickness of 18 mils. This means we need a 10-gauge wire.

The best source I came up with for an appropriate wire is Beadalon Artistic Wire for jewelers. Only the red & brown come in 10-gauge and with a non-tarnish coating.

Anyways, I went to Michael's and the best they had was some other brand in 12-gauge aluminum (hot pink no less!); but it was only $2. I figured this would suffice for a prototype. Next stop was Home Depot for a 1/2" oak dowel rod (wood is probably not the best long term solution).

I drilled a little hole in one end, put the wire into it and then began to wind it up. This is of course the trickiest part; the wire is quite malleable, but can kink and get deformed quite easily, plus it requires some strength and dexterity to wind it it as tightly and closely as it needs to be. However, I think it can be done with some practice. The other end was secured with another small drill hole and all told, it looked pretty good. I'll try to post a picture soon.

I did a quick test with some sumi ink and got a respectable coating with only a few gaps due to imperfect winding of the wire.

In summary, I think this is an incredibly useful tool for the alternative printer and they shouldn't be particularly difficult to make once the particulars get worked out.

[Vaughn]

Neat! Not really applicable to my tissue making since I coat much thicker.

Vaughn

[holmburgers]

Danke Schoen Vaughn!

I wondered about that actually. I think that anything over (well, under) 10-gauge would become unwieldy.

[holmburgers]

Any thoughts on how thick your tissues actually are? I am suprised by how thin these are -> http://bostick-sullivan.invisionzone...-on-thickness/

[Vaughn]

Someone (Sandy, I think) worked it out for me at one point, but I forget. But I put 120ml of glop on 100 square inches, if that helps. The wet height on the tissue is impressive! LOL!

If the pigment load is high, no sense in pouring a thick tissue -- just a waste of glop and the added hassles of extra drying time, etc.

[Photo Engineer]

That company is about 5 - 10 miles NE of George Eastman House. Mark has a few of them here IIRC, so those coming to the workshop in Oct. can try one out I guess.

PE

[Leigh B]

Any thoughts on how thick your tissues actually are? I am suprised by how thin these are -> http://bostick-sullivan.invisionzone...-on-thickness/

That particular thread is in the "Copper gravure" forum, and may not apply to carbon tissues.

- Leigh

[Leigh B]

But I put 120ml of glop on 100 square inches, if that helps.

120ml on 100 in^2 = a coating thickness of 0.186mm = 7 mils (0.007 inches).

- Leigh

[gmikol]

Check your math, there...

120 ml = 120 cm^3 = 7.32 in^3 (120 / 2.54 / 2.54 / 2.54)
7.32 in^3 / 100 in^2 = 0.0732 in wet thickness.

--Greg

[Leigh B]

Yep. I confused mm with cm. Sorry.

- Leigh