Re: 980822 MMDigest

Bruce Clark suggests using a roller ironer for drying out damp-swollen
rolls.

Even the old companies couldn't get completely non-hygroscopic paper,
but there are several modern recutters I will not name, especially
here in the UK, who cut rolls dry and let owners sweat when our
humidity bites and swells them out as much as one perforation width
at the edges.

My solution is simple, long-lasting and only slightly fiddly. I
happened to have several tins of bagged silica gel from shipments of
electronic equipment, where they are inserted to prevent rust. Silica
gel takes up several times its own weight of water from air and is
simply "recharged" by heating it in a low oven for two hours or so. I
run a woodburner and place a large caterer's Nescafe tin on top for
recharging. The lid is removed while heating and snapped on when the
stove cools, keeping the dried-out bags indefinitely.

Each roll is wrapped, together with one "recharged" silica gel sachet
and a paper indicator (light blue, goes pink when damp), in a
transparent plastic bag and then placed in its box.

One sachet seems to last about two years before the indicator goes
pale pink and three before the roll really begins to swell again.
This is in a house with no central heating, even in the winter. I
have always left the original sachet in, but I imagine that if you
used one to dry the roll out and another to keep it, these periods
would at least double.

When drying out an initially damp roll, there has to be a three-month
quarantine period, because it dries from the outside in and until it
is uniformly dry, cockles can cause ciphers.

Silica gel is fairly expensive to buy, but never wears out.

Dan Wilson, London