Copper Plate Photogravure

Ahh yes... Copper plate photogravure. The ultimate challenge in technique. Lets see, my goal was to have ten images by the end of March. I set that back in December. So far, I have made 2, and they're not where I want them yet. I'm a little behind. Damn day job chewing up my time... Anyway..
I'm making progress. This is the second image I've made. Its getting there. The struggle is with contrast (Same struggle I had with polymer photogravure), but unlike the polymer plates, copper has a lot more room to play with. The tonal range is there, its just tweaking the resist and the etch to deliver.
There are two technical problems that continue to drive me crazy with this process. The first is related to dissolved oxygen in the water. Any free oxygen in the water will create an air bubble in the resist which will over etch and create a dark spot in the print. I'm using distilled water, and I'm boiling it, and I've gone as far as mix all wet processes with up to 80% alcohol, and still... the damn bubbles rear their ugly pimply heads on occasion. I am going to switch to a dry laydown process and see if I have any better luck. The texts say to use a mangle for the dry process. My first reaction was "What the hell is a mangle? I'm doing a pretty good job at mangling these things on my own." Well it turns out a mangle is the set of rollers that a 50's housewife used to run laundry through. Now that I think about it, I remember my mother doing such things to our laundry. However I doubt if I would ever find any old whirlpool mangle squirreled away in the garage. Maybe rusting out in the woods behind the house....I'm going with a steal rolling pin... Just have to see what happens.
The other issue is...harder to put my finger on. What I want to create are prints that are photographic in their tonality. Yet what I'm getting is more of a raw, etched look. This is where an experienced old master would really come in handy. Somebody that could just look at the materials and processes and say, "Yeah, you twit use this, or stop doing that." Man that would be helpful. But I'm pretty much on my own. Some of the literature I've read indicates that a dirty blanket could contribute to a rougher look. The blanket looks fine to me, but what do I know? I'm saving up my lunch money to buy one of those new fangled rubber blankets. Maybe that will do the trick.
I mean, the work is looking pretty good, but I want smoother tonality. Anyway it looks like this is going to spill over into the summer projects.