Anyone ever user a Thermaphot acp200?

I picked up one of these practically free a few years ago.

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I hooked it up today, followed the instructions. When turned on should the gears be running continuously? I filled each chamber with 2.5ltrs of chem, put the racks in, turned on and it makes a humming noise but no gears are turning. I am unsure what it does in normal operation. I adjusted one of the timing gears and thought maybe i got the motor stuck, or maybe the gears do not turn until paper is inserted or the chem is up to temp. I also am unsure about the temp switch, when switching it it does not stay in place but the light goes on. Is this temp switch just a one of motion to see if the light is off which means it is up to temp? Hopefully someone can get back to me before my chem goes stale. Thanks!

i think i set one of the gears wrong, but will work on it later once the chem is drained

Did you make sure the connection to the drive motor was secure? Theres a couple of links on the back side of the tank that also has a clip that holds them down. I just got mine recently but have not had time to do a run. You might also check the reduction gears where you can change the speed and see if all is in the right place for your speed. That part I haven't looked at yet cause mine seems to be at the right speed already.
I'd love to hear more of your experience with it, might be of help keeping mine on track too.

I'll have a look today. I was also wondering if it only takes 8x10 sheets or are you able to insert test strips or 5x7 as well? I was thinking maybe test strips if they are cut 10long but they may go in crooked and jam up, the 5x7's might not be long enough to catch the rollers..

I used one of these connected to a thing with an LCD imaging engine (older, crapier 8" wide version of this thing) it was a poor man's lambda. The gears ran on that one when the 'image was sent', otherwise it hummed away in neutral. Many of these things don't engage until paper is fed (tripping a clutch device). My experience with this thing was that it would take any size paper you fed it as long as it was under the maximum and was fed emulsion down (I think that would be emulsion up on yours as the feed on yours is opposite the one I used). The tanks were small and it went through a fair amount of chems, worked really well. The only odd bits that I recall were that there were some weirdness with a guide that held the racks in place and some spacers that were needed for each rack. I'd google a manual if possible

I used the Durst RCP20 which was the prior model to the ACP200 and was made by Thermaphot. I have no problem running 5x7 or 4x6 prints through it. I use Kodak RA4 monitoring strips as well that are 3.5"x12". I have also seen it used to process 5" wide paper that was 10 feet in length. I think that if you take a close look at the roller configuration you will see that their is not a lot of distance between the rollers so the processor can handle small prints. The easiest way to test it is to fill the tanks with water and cut some old prints into smaller size and run them through to see how the paper is handled by the rollers. Make sure not to run the system unless their is either water or chemistry in the tanks.
Gord

Temp switch

The durst rcp20 has a mechanical thermostat. The temperature check switch is a momentary contact you press; if the light is lit you are up to temperature; I may have that backwards. Press the switch to see how it reacts when you first power the machine up, and you know the chemistry is cold.

The Thermaphot tabletop processors (I have a bigger one) run continuously when on. The transports continuously turn. You can feed in pieces of paper as small as about 4x5 with confidence. The only thing that only runs when paper is present is the accessory wash module..and even this module, the rollers continuously turn, but the water flow and blower and heat lamps stay off unless paper is present. Your processor does not appear to have a wash module, so you will need to briefly wash your prints after they come out, and then dry them. The Thermaphot (and earlier Durst models) power the roller transports thru a drive on the back side. A short shaft sticks out from the back plane of the processor, one for each transport, that meshes with a shaft on each roller transport. A red collar is used to secure both shafts together. It slides over the junction of the two shafts and holds them together. Then a plastic piece is set in on top of all the shafts to hold the collars in place.

The Thermaphot processors are significant improvements over the older Durst branded processors they replaced. (RCP-20, RCP-40)
especially with RA-4 chemistry.

Sean, did you ever get your processor going? I just spent the day making prints with mine. Oh, that's so much nicer! No wiping drums dry, pour stuff in and out, watching the clock. One thing I found is the little lid over the slot is not light tight. Hold it up to a lamp and you'll see. So if you want to turn on light immediately after loading a sheet use a dim one or wait till the sheet is pulled all the way in. The lid makes a handy guide for loading the paper. There's an inset on the bottom you can line the sheet up in while the lid is upright and then you tuck the sheet into the rollers and let it go. As far as the temp, use a thermometer. Don't trust the dial, mine ran at 96F while the dial was set to 105F.

I don't mean to hijack this thread so hopefully I can ask here since some seem to know the RCP 20.

I have a RCP 20 and really enjoyed using it although its been in storage for a while. I have read that the gearing has to be changed to run RA4, true?

I would like to use it again and will change the gears if needed, although it would be nice if I didn't have to.

Any advise?

I can converted my RCP20 to run RA4 by buying a kit to change the gear ratio to drive the worm gear faster. There used to be information of the web for instruction to change the gearing but I can't find the links to them anymore. Here are a couple of links to articles that tell you what you can do to about adjusting temperature of the machine to process prints at a slower speed in the RA4 chemistry.
http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-printing-finishing-forum/002WkR
http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00Fr5H

The kit I got had only the parts needed and how to install them and didn't provide any information on the size of the gears to make the adjustment. The fan size was increased as well to provide for better cooling.
Gord

You don't need to change the gearing on the RCP-20 to use RA-4 chemistry, just run your RA-4 chemistry at lower temperature, which slows down the develop and blix times. The RCP-20 has about a 2 minute developing time, if I recall, a bit short for EP-2, so it was always a little bit of a problem, but 2 minutes is a bit long for RA-4, which should be 45 seconds at what, about 100f? Try your chemistry at 80f, should be about right.

Of historical interest...the larger "Durst RCP" processor, the RCP-40 which would do 16" wide paper came in a variable speed model as well as the slightly cheaper fixed speed model.

I've just had a frustrating day in the darkroom, started around 9am and here it is 6:30 in the evening and not a print to show for it. I set up the ACP and ran the first test print through it and got good density, just off on the filtration and time. I started trying to get it right and everything just went downhill fast. The density just kept getting worse and the color going way yellow, then blank. For some reason the developer had died, seemingly contaminated. I changed it out and tried again but wasn't getting anywhere.
Turned out a bulb had blown in the enlarger, so we finally found some at the Photo Barn in Lilburn. Got home and went down to set it up again.
Still no good density, even at 160 seconds aperture wide open. Max density was a pumpkin yellow. I think the developer had gotten contaminated again. Theres no way it could have sloshed blix over into the developer, the level was too low for that. I'm really frustrated with that thing right now and I have no idea whats wrong.

gordrob said:

I can converted my RCP20 to run RA4 by buying a kit to change the gear ratio to drive the worm gear faster. There used to be information of the web for instruction to change the gearing but I can't find the links to them anymore. Here are a couple of links to articles that tell you what you can do to about adjusting temperature of the machine to process prints at a slower speed in the RA4 chemistry.
http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-printing-finishing-forum/002WkR
http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00Fr5H

The kit I got had only the parts needed and how to install them and didn't provide any information on the size of the gears to make the adjustment. The fan size was increased as well to provide for better cooling.
Gord

Click to expand...

Is this the Gord I bought the RCP off of today??? Found this post researching the machine. Small world.
Pleasure meeting you today.