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35mm film development, how do you clean your reels?

Necator

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Aug 31, 2008
Messages
138
Location
Broendby, De
Format
Multi Format
I use an AP development tank that can hold two 35mm films or one 120 format. The first couple of films I developed where a breeze, the reels were very easy to load in the changing bag, and development turned out fine. However, with the last two films I developed, I have been running into problems when loading them onto the reel. A week ago I developed a Rollei 400S, and after trying to load it on a reel a few times (it stuck, refused to go any further), I had to cut the film in two, and load it onto two reels. Today I developed a Fomapan 400, and I ran into the same problem. I finally managed to load it on the reel, but now I can see that parts of the film are undeveloped.

As the reels are pretty new (2 months), I was thinking that maybe my cleaning of the reels were not good enough. So far, I have just rinsed them in water for a few seconds, and left them to dry. So, how do you clean your reels?

Henrik
 
Are these plastic or stainless reels? If they are plastic the most common cause of film 'sticking' when loading the reel is tiny droplets of water in the reel. Plastic reels have to be completely dry before loading.
 
Good afternoon,

I'm using hot water to clean my Jobo reels, and have no issue with them. Once in a while I'll add some dish-washing liquid, then rince toroughly.

I dry them after separating the two halves, to make sure no water stays anywhere.
 
Did you put the reels in Photo-Flo or other wetting agent. It can leave a residue on plastic reels. Scrub with a brush under really hot running water.

Stainless steel reels never have this problem, but there is a learning curve. No harder than learning to ride a bike, and you never forget how. (Just don't try and use junk Chinese-made reels.)
 
They are plastic reels. Water could be the reason. I have my darkroom (well, my film development spot anyway) in the basement, and the humidity there is quite high, so the reels could well be moist when I try to load them.
 
Necator said:
They are plastic reels. Water could be the reason. I have my darkroom (well, my film development spot anyway) in the basement, and the humidity there is quite high, so the reels could well be moist when I try to load them.
Click to expand...

This could be the cause. I have had plastic reels 'stick' when loading in a changing bag, just because it was a warm day, my hands were sweating and made the interior of the bag humid.

I now use steel reels.
 
Andy K said:
I have had plastic reels 'stick' when loading in a changing bag, just because it was a warm day, my hands were sweating and made the interior of the bag humid.
Click to expand...

aaaaaaahhh ! that may be the reason why I almost stopped using Tri-X when I had a very hard evening with a few of them. Now I'm using a darkroom and no longer a chnaging bag, and never had theproblem again
 
after you unspool your film from the reels
put them back in your cylinder that should
still be full of dilute photoflo
run hot water into the tank/cylinder
( this should keep them clean )
hang your reels to dry and maybe use
a blow dryer to dry off completely if they
still stay wet ..
i hate plastic reels ..
metal ones work like a charm

good luck!
john
 
[I was thinking that maybe my cleaning of the reels were not good enough. So far, I have just rinsed them in water for a few seconds, and left them to dry. So, how do you clean your reels?

******
Definitely not enough for plastic reels. My plastic reels can be separated. I scrub them with a natural-fiber kitchen brush, using a very mild household cleaning powder which has been the darkroom worker's friend for many decades. It is called Bon Ami Cleanser. Bon Ami's advertising slogan has long been: "It hasn't scratched yet."

I have also used a product called Bar Keeper's Friend. After scrubbing, give them a thorough rinse and, as advised, let them air dry thoroughly.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have found that the slightest dampness causes plastic reels to become unreceptive to film loading. If my hands spend too long in the changing bag, I get that too, and in that case, I pop everything in to the tank and give it a quarter of an hour in the fridge to cool off, and it usually loads easily after that.

I've never seen the need for special washing of plastic reels. The end of film development for me is always a twenty minute forced wash in running water with a tube connected to the tank (Paterson System 4), so the tank contents are going to be as washed as they'll ever be, since there's no oily components to dev and fix chemicals.

I think the key is drying rather than washing. With around four decades of film D&P, I only ever get a problem with reels when they're not bone dry, or the film has warmed up too much.
 
I wash the film on the reel, in the tank. That gets them reasonably clean. After I take the film of the reel, I stick the reel back in the tank and give it a quick rinse to get the Photoflo off of it. I haven't had any problems doing this for about 50 years.
 
I use a tooth brush and tooth paste. Seriously.
Most tooth pastes are mildly abrasive - and work well.
 
Thank you all for your feedback. I think the problems I have been having are due to moisture on the reels. I have decided to store my reels (once dried) in a drawer in my office instead. That should eliminate the moisture problem. Also, I have decided (at least for the next couple of films), to load the reel with my test film (an expired colour film I sacrificed earlier), just to ensure there will be no problems when loading my film.
 
Clean? Reels need to be cleaned?

Oh, you must be talking about those plastic reels. Thankfully, I stopped using those a long time ago.
 
Number 1 on the list of reasons that I use Hewes stainless steel rings. I like the way plastic reels load up when they work correctly, When they didn't I switched to stainless steel.

Steve
 
I've just taken delivery of a couple of Hewes 35mm reels and a couple of tanks, the first time I've had steel reels since the very early seventies, and all because of this thread. Got them from Calumet (UK), but strangely, though they list a steel tank for 120, they don't list 120 reels, only 35mm, so I won't be able to try out 120 till I find a source.
 

FreeStyle has the steel Hewes reels.

Steve
 
Cut off the corners of the film before you feed it into the reel, I find this makes it load easier.

TEX
 
Rinse with hot water. Remove film after wash and then see saw film in a bowl of Photo-flo solution rather than get the wetting agent on the reels.

Less important with Stainless Steel but once I adopted this method for plastic, it just became routine and is the way I always do it.
 
Just developed another roll, and again problems loading it. About them steel reel, will the Hewes available from Calumet fit in my AP tank?
 
Necator said:
will the Hewes available from Calumet fit in my AP tank?
Click to expand...
I've just taken delivery of a couple of Hewes reels from Calumet, for 35mm. The diameter of the reel is 8.3cm and the height is 4.1cm. Does this help?
 
alexmacphee said:
I've just taken delivery of a couple of Hewes reels from Calumet, for 35mm. The diameter of the reel is 8.3cm and the height is 4.1cm. Does this help?
Click to expand...

I think you'd better measure the diameter of the inner circle as well. If the reel doesn't fit the central tube, it won't be light tight.
 
alexmacphee said:
I've just taken delivery of a couple of Hewes reels from Calumet, for 35mm. The diameter of the reel is 8.3cm and the height is 4.1cm. Does this help?
Click to expand...

Then they would easily fit. The diameter of my AP reels are 9.5 cm (height also 4.1 cm). However, I need to find a different supplier than Calumet. They charge 26 GBP for shipment to Denmark.
 
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