I know that this has been asked before, but I think mine might be related to my exposure unit and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas. I am using an OLEC AL-53 with a bulb of unknown age. The bulb type is the standard one, the one that isn't really suited for diazo and that is what I am using. I know that the exposure time will generally go up as the bulb ages, but I was wondering if it would decrease the quality in such a way that it wouldn't expose properly no matter what.
The recommended time for my emulsion on a 5k light is ~130 seconds, which will expose it well enough that it won't be slimy or anything, but I am getting sawtoothing still. I have tried running it over and under that time and still, sawtoothing. The odd thing though, I don't get sawtoothing on lower mesh screens, like 110s, the ones that are sawtoothing are my 305 and 355 mesh screens. Could this be an EOM issue?
The reason that I think that it might be related to the exposure unit is that I was getting good screens when I was just using a grow light. I am going to try to set that up again to see if it would give me better screens, but it is a pain to use in comparison to the olec.
I know that I should be using a calculator, but I seem to have lost mine. I plan to get another soon. I just had thought thatI had it dialed in so I didn't need it anymore and forgot about looking for it. Also, the filter that went on top of it got messed up from sticking to the screen a few times.
I should mention that I am washing the ink out properly, reclaiming fully and degreasing like I should, so I don't think that is it. I also dry them in a box, so I shouldn't be getting any contamination there either.
