Ansco box camera scratching film

I recently picked up a very nice Ansco Cadet that I cleaned up and modded with some yellow filtering to help with contrast but even after cleaning off the rollers I'm getting scratches on my film when winding it through. I've run 3 rolls through so far and all consistantly appear to have marks on both the emulsion and base side and they're generally small and not in any particular place, kind of all over the map if you will.

Anyone have any tips or experience working through some repairs to get this under control? I absolutely love the images I'm getting from this camera so I'd really like to solve this problem so I can use this camera much more confidently and make prints that won't need hours of spotting.

Is it possible it's happening during development? Or that the film is defective? It seems odd to have scratches on both sides of the film, when the base should be protected by backing paper. Also, you have both dark and light lines, so some scratches would be clear on the negative and others dark. If you do still suspect the camera, load it with just a backing paper and watch to see if the rollers are actually turning.

Gently use silver polish on the rollers to see if that will help.

Dwight Anderson said:

Is it possible it's happening during development? Or that the film is defective? It seems odd to have scratches on both sides of the film, when the base should be protected by backing paper. Also, you have both dark and light lines, so some scratches would be clear on the negative and others dark. If you do still suspect the camera, load it with just a backing paper and watch to see if the rollers are actually turning.

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Thanks for the reply. I’m basically 100% sure it’s the camera. I processed film that was perfectly fine alongside these rolls that weren’t. and I’ve never seen this before with any other rolls either, just the ones from this Ansco. Also, 2 rolls of Pan F+ and one roll of Acros so it’s probably not a film issue either. I agree it seems odd, which is why I’m hoping for some further thoughts or experiences.

The backing paper only is a great idea, I can try that tomorrow.

Might be that the emulsion is scraping along the edges of the film plane itself inside the camera.

How smooth is the film advance? Too tight or too loose can cause scratches when taking up the slack or dragging it too hard across the rollers.

If you're getting marks on the base side of 120, it's not the camera. The base side is protected by the backing paper during transport in the camera. You can get scratches on the base side from pulling on the film tail to tighten the roll (if you get it to move at all), or after unrolling the film (pretty much any time it's wet is the most vulnerable time, of course).

I've not seen marks like this on any other rolls and I've processed loads over my lifetime. I also tried skipping the squeegee after hanging to dry for the 3rd and last roll so far and it was the same again but with the addition of some drying mark trash, so I'll be squeegeeing per usual next time. There's got to be something about loading this camera and winding through that I'm either doing wrong, or that's giving me problems. I've loaded enough film in my lifetime to suspect the latter but not arrogant enough not to consider the former.

The film advance is rather stiff but the winding knob is also stiff without film loaded in so difficult to tell if the film is tight or it's just the mechanics of the knob. Unfortunately, I feel like there's little I can do to correct the knob stiffness since this part appears unable to be disassembled.

I have a second one of these (not nearly as nice, lens is dingy) that I just took a look at and, interestingly it appears to have a different setup for the rollers. I can't open the other one as it still has half a roll left inside but I don't recall more than the 2 that wrap over the film plane. This one has 4 and I guess the film is meant to go underneath them and it would roll in under a bit like a separate film back?

I checked my Ansco Cadet, it only has two rollers. One of them does have some light rust spots, so if they aren't turning all the time it would create some scratches. The camera with four rollers is probably the Agfa-Ansco Cadet, both types came with variations over the years. Don't load film under the second set of rollers, they don't turn, and are there to position and tension the film spool.