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Silver Recovery Unit
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Metallic Replacement Silver Recovery Units. MRUs use a chemical process to recover the silver in the fixer solution. This process involves the use of canisters ranging in sizes from 5 to 20 gal containing either steel wool or wound screen. These units do not need a power source and are only connected with hose attachments. There is a bypass tube that is connected at the top of the cartridge, which allows the fixer solution to go directly to the drain instead of through the cartridge if the cartridge becomes plugged. These systems are extremely efficient, with recovery of silver up...
Construction Grinds to Halt
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Know your Canadian HS Tariff Codes
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Should you be like many wet plate photographers we often buy and sell lenses and cameras for a variety of reasons. Most often the devices being purchased are considered “antique” and when the delivery dude shows up at the door he is standing there with his hand out demanding far more money than budgeted. You feel like you are being railroaded. There will be taxes and tariffs, brokerage fees and admin fees, and what seems like a litany of other fees that can add significantly to the cost of the good being imported. This is unfortunate as the import tariff...
Standing Tall with the Head Brace
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Living quite a distance removed from the North American major population centres is a mixed blessing. It also comes with challenges, such as accessing goods and services required for making wet plates. With that in mind I set out to design a head brace that was not only functional, but would also be light enough to not require a second mortgage in shipping costs. Our head brace went through several versions before I was finally happy with the product. It is a head brace I have tested and use in my studio. The first realization was that if...
Does the Modern Studio Have a Place in Wet Plate Collodion?
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The Christmas Holiday season is a fabulous time of year to reflect on what is in the past, and ponder what the future might bring. For wet plate collodion photographers in the far northern hemisphere it is most likely also a time when one wishes for June and sufficient UV to be out making plates once again. But is June really necessary? Two days earlier it was 26°C with a UV Index of zero. Should the collodion photographer move inside the studio with modern equipment, or remain true to tradition and wait for June and workable ultra violet light?...