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

Anon Ymous said:

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.

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Rats, I measured that, and somehow forgot to add it!

It's an awkward contour, but I rolled up a piece of paper into a tube and pushed it through, and it looks like anything wider than 7mm diameter won't fit.

alexmacphee said:

Rats, I measured that, and somehow forgot to add it!

It's an awkward contour, but I rolled up a piece of paper into a tube and pushed it through, and it looks like anything wider than 7mm diameter won't fit.

Click to expand...

The center pin is more than 2 cm i diameter, so that won't work . Well, perhaps I should try the fridge trick mentioned earlier (and at some point get a new tank + steel reels).

Necator said:

The center pin is more than 2 cm i diameter, so that won't work

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There is a version of the Hewes 35mm reel made specially for Paterson tanks, which I had considered getting, as I have used Paterson System 4 tanks for a long time. The Paterson reel is 9.5cm diameter, 4.1cm in height, and the central diameter is 2.5cm. I decided just to buy some stainless steel tanks instead, but if your AP tank is similar to the Paterson, that's another option.

It just occured to me about the moisture/humidity problems. In addition to scrubbing my plastic reels,when I lived on the beach in NJ, I sometimes still had problems with the old Ansco tank. I cut a piece of blotter paper from a blotter roll, the same width as a 120 film. I would feed that in, just like a roll of film, remove it, then turn out the lights and load the film. FWIW Keep in mind there are plenty of folks here who have used the same grungy, unclean plastic reels for decades without trouble.

Err..... I don't. Not sure if I should feel embarrassed! Joking of course. But seriously, I use regular pull-apart reels. After going through washing & photo-flo they're just rinsed in hot water and left to air-dry. When dry I get my fingernails into the ball-bearings to make sure they're moving nice & freely, because if anything's gonna stuff you up when your hands are tied in the dark-bag (or darkroom) it will be a ball-bearing malfunction as you're pulling film into the reel. Air-drying can stiffen them up, and they can even rust (why I 'rotate' usage of my reels, I have quite a few). I've never felt the need for scrubbing them. After a while they might start to look like my old frypan, but that old frypan works better than ever.

The only film I have difficulties loading to plastic AP reels is APX100, maybe the base material is different?
It still loads but with much friction closer to the end of film. Never had problems with my greamy Paterson plastic reels though, the plastic is less white and looks more smooth than AP...

I send my off to be sonic cleaned after every roll I develop .....just kidding. I use a spray nozle like the one on a kitchen sink.

I just rinse the (plastic - Paterson) reels under the tap, and let them dry.
Never a problem.

Sticky film is often mentioned to be a problem with plastic reels, not with steel.
But film sticks to steel as well as it does to plastic when wet/moist/humid.

It's not the material the reel is made out of, but the way the film is loaded.
The walk-in/shuffle-in type, that loads from the outside in will be a problem. The type of reel in which the film is attached to the center, then loaded from the center out is not, and can be loaded even when dripping wet.

So not a plastic vs steel thing.

I use plastic. I rinse with hot water after using. They never stick.

I've been using paterson plastic reels for over 30 years - 120 and 35mm. The only time I've ever had a film stick when loading onto a dry reel was when I was using a reel I got second hand: It turned out it was not a paterson reel but a copy my made by some maufacturer I'd never heard of. I find that the reels wash sufficiently along with the film. Really, I never have any trouble and so see no reason to change to SS when they load so easily.