anti static brush

Does the anti static brushes work well on cleaning dust from negatives ? Is

there a certain one anyone can recomend ? I seen one at b&h that has a wire

attached to it and was wondering what the wire is for. Thank you for reading

my post.

 

Jim

Hi Jim,

 

I suspect the wire is used to ground the device.

 

Sometimes the device will attach to your wrist and you become the ground and some of

them use a wire to touch the floor and complete the circuit.

 

I use a product called Static Master. It has a brush and a small pod which contains a

radioactive isotope.

 

Not deadly to us if you dont ingest but it ionizes the air in front of the device and

neutralizes the static charge.

 

This is the B&H part number STB3. They are under $40 and last about 3-4 years. Mine is

still good after 5. Your mileage may vary though.

 

Best

 

-ian

The Static Masters really do the job. Most other brands of anti-stat brushes do not.

Regarding the Static Master brush - my mileage did indeed vary! Mine never did anything more than a "normal" brush would do. I have always felt cheated out of my money for the thing. Here is a link discussing this:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00EqQQ

 

Jeff

Thanks to everyone for your advice on the anti static brushes, after hearing all the comments i think i will try the cloth and the blower. Again Thank You very much for all your help.

 

Jim

The secret to working the StaticMaster effectively is to go SLOW.

 

You can test it with a charged balloon and plastic peanuts. Rub that balloon on your hair (dry winter air will help this demo). Stick some plastic peanuts to the balloon. Hold the StaticMaster foil grid against the balloon. Count to see how many seconds it takes for the peanuts to drop off. That gives you an indication of how slowly you need to move your StaticMaster to have an effect on film (accounting for the smaller surface area of the film vs. balloon).

 

Keep in mind that Polonium 210 has a half life of 137 days. When they ship from the factory they contain 500 microcuries of activity. By the time you purchase it and take it home...and then it sits for a few months...etc. Every 137 days it is half as strong as it was before.

 

I just purchased a replacement from B&H about a month ago. The 'replace on' date was Feb 2009. My guess is that it was made in late summer and the expiration is after 4 half lives. That is to say once it is reduced to 1/16 of its original strength.

 

Used properly and used fresh it will work better than other products. Used in ignorance, you will be frustrated.

I used to use one and they seemed to work ok but then once a scratch appeared on a neg that I was in the process of printing. This was a print I was making for someone and I pulled the carrier out to dust the neg once again (I suck at spotting) and after putting it back into the enlarger the neg somehow got a scratch across it. Same direction I had been brushing as well. I'm very careful when handleing my negs so all I can think was some partical on the baseboard got into the bristles and scratched the neg. I remember very well looking at the prints before and the ones after with the dreaded white line across them. So I just use a hurricane blower; seems to work ok. Someday I hope to be able to spot better. I'm making a lot of 16x20 fiber prints these days and I'm afraid to spot 'em since I never can seem to get just enough ink on the brush while not having too much I leave a ring.

Marc, regarding your problems with spotting, are you using a brush with a fine enough point? I use a #000 with a good point that works well. The brush tips wear down eventually and need to be replaced. Using a magnifier can help greatly too. Print spotting shouldn't be rushed, so don't do it in a hurry or impatiently.

Hi Doug...yeah my brush is the same size. They say that the brush needs to be almost completely dry but then how does the ink get onto the bristles? No matter what I do, I STILL end up with too much ink on the brush and onto the paper.

Marc, the way I do it is first I make a little puddle of the undiluted spotting dye on a small white plastic palette, and allow it to dry. When ready to spot, I dip my brush in clear water, run the bristles back and forth over clean paper until the brush is not dripping or dry, but nicely damp, then pick up some of the spotting dye with the tip and keeping the brush perpendicular to the print surface gently touch the tip to the print. You'll want to work back and forth with the dye and the clear water, always brushing any excess of either on scrap paper. I've never spotted with the brush almost dry.

 

If you goof and apply too much dye, immediately scrub the problem area with a brush loaded with warm clean water (you might want to use another brush for this rather than the spotting brush.) This will often be more effective with RC than with fiber, but it's worth a try.

Thanks Doug I'll give it go.