I used a 14 inch wide FC Auto glazing machine for a while. Here are some notes to guide you in the use of one in the absence of a manual. It is a rotary dryer / glazer for fibre based (FB) paper. It can only be used for wet FB paper; RC paper has plastic layers on both sides and the heat of the glazing drum will melt the plastic and make a mess of the glazer. Never put dry prints in the glazer with the heat on; with no heat it may help flatten prints.

You can put the print against the surface of the drum for a high gloss finish. Alternatively, you can put the print surface against the canvas and this will give you a finish similar to air-dry gloss with FB glossy paper. It’s really designed as a glazer so I’m sure the manual, should you find one, will probably only talk about this. I mostly used it as a dryer and put the print surface against the canvas. I prefer the finish it gives. If you put the print surface against the drum for high gloss then the drum must be free of surface defects or these will give variable gloss.

Don’t use high heat or papers like Ilford MGFB will curl. Set up the dryer so that it takes about 40 to 60 minutes for a print to come through and is just dry at the end. Here are the settings I used on my glazer. There are 4 switches on a bottom right hand panel, set them as follows.

• Top switch always on.
• 2nd switch down is the on/off switch
• 3rd switch down, Speed: set to 2
• Bottom switch, Thermostat: set to 1 or less (about 40C works best – you have to guess which setting gives this!)