I've been trying to find a source for thinner aluminum plate. I was looking over the maintain trophy site and noticed their MAIN STEEL line that is .015 thick and comes in black. Has anyone taken a look at this product?

Not sure how the finish is (paint or anodized aluminum-like product).

If anyone hs any insight, I'd love to hear your impressions.

Thanks.

Chris

C. Christopher Morgan
~Wet-Plate Collodion Artist~
North Carolina

wetplates.blogspot.com

I tried that stuff once. It works, but its not painted like the aluminum. Instead, it has a thin piece of black vinyl stuck to the metal, and the back is uncoated. If you don't coat the back of the plate with something, you get a nasty black residue on the back of the plate and in your silver bath. Also, over time the vinyl expands and contracts and can cause the collodion/varnish to crack, forming a pattern similar to what mud does when it dries.

I did a test once where I shot a main steel plate, an aluminum plate, and a glass plate, and left them in the back window of my car for a year in the Louisiana heat, down to their mild winter low of around 40 degrees... The aluminum lasted the longest, followed by the glass, and the steel had the wicked crackled surface that I described above.

I've still got some if you want a couple 5x7 pieces. I was using it to back clear glass ambrotypes up until I stopped shooting clear glass as often.

Andy

Thanks for the info. I figured it was something like that (vynil or coating) that wouldn't work.

Sure wouldmlike to find some .01 or .015-ish aluminum.....

C. Christopher Morgan
~Wet-Plate Collodion Artist~
North Carolina

wetplates.blogspot.com

I've tried some plate from a trophy shop that is black steel. I don't know if the black is a vinyl coating or not, but it's identical to the aluminum we're familiar with. The back of this steel plate is brass coated, too, by the way, instead of bare metal.

I like it so far.

Frank

Frank Brower
Monocle Photography
Bangor, Al.

Just a word of caution. You might have some silver bath problems from the Zinc in that "brass" coating. Mossy zinc is used to scavenge silver from used hypo baths.

One thing I done years ago with this stuff was to take a small piece and REALLY heat it...and the small of asphalt came through.