Starting Collodion 2

Camera.
I already have a 5x4 MPP camera that I picked up on eBay last year.  It was a bit mouldy and tatty but I gave it a bath and let it air for a few weeks and it seems to be fine.  It came with a schneider 135 lens which also seems ok.  I'm sure I'll 'need' a collection of old brass lenses soon, but for now this will have to suffice!

Silver bath.
At around £70 online I decided to have a go at making my own.  I ordered A4 sheets of 3mm black perspex and a small bottle of Tensol 12 glue. All for under £30.  Using (or sweet talking someone else to) 'Illustrator', I got the design drawn up ready to take to the laser cutter at UCA, more begging was involved to get help with using the cutter but eventually I came home with an airfix style kit ready to glue together. That glue honks!  The gluing was not as easy as I had hoped, to get the box watertight took 2 days.  I was reasonably pleased with the outcome but not convinced that it was up to scratch so I just bought 1 from John Brewer.  I know it's a bit of a cop out but at least I can be sure it won't leak! I've kept the home made 1 for another day.

Chemicals.
I ordered the following from John Brewer and spend around £135

Silver Nitrate Crystals
Positive Collodion (ready mixed)
Positive Developer (concentrated)
Plate Cleaner

Fixer (Sodium Thiosulphate) Amazon or Ebay under £10

Distilled Water £3 for 5lt  (I bought 2)

IDA (Industrial Denatured Alcohol) used for mixing and preparing a variety of things.  This can only be bought with a license.  This is free and fairly simple to obtain on line.  3 litres cost about £30.

Albumen (for edging the plates) This is just egg white mixed with water.

£251 excluding the camera so far!  The rest of the list of items can be bought, begged, borrowed or made (not stollen though!)

The list was given to me by Peter Renn and has been put together from experience.  He was kind enough to mark the things that were necessary and those that may just make things easier.  These are some of the things I've collected.

Safety goggles £6
Lab jacket (silver nitrate stains everything it touches) £17
Protective rubber gloves £4 for a box of 50
Hydrometer ( beer making )  £3.50
Thermometer (beer making) £3.50
Plate drying rack, with a drip tray £10 Amazon, it's a bit big so may find a better one in the future.
Plastic funnels £1 for 3 Wilko
Unbleached coffee filters £3 Tesco
Jewellery scales £15 Amazon (you can get cheaper ones but after reading reviews I opted for better quality)
Plastic Bottles £10 for an assortment from amazon, I bought some 500ml and some 100ml but should have bought some 1000ml too.
Digital timer with no light £1 Ikea.
Cotton Wool Pads
Cotton Buds
Kitchen Roll
Jugs/Glass beakers
Clean Cloth for cleaning plates, I have got some old muslin and some put linen cloth.
Developing Trays (New black baking trays work)

Glass Plate Holder for the camera. Peter converted a film holder for me (quarter plate size). I also bought a plate holder for 5 x 4 plates £20 form ebay.
Glass plates.  Picture glass is good
Glass Cutter £10 eBay
Diamond Whet Stone for smoothing the edges of the cut glass.

Sounds off putting I know but most of this stuff only needs getting once!