Best home made film splitters?

eli griggs · Jan 31, 2022

I want to try a different splitter for 120 films, what are you using that you built or was built by a fellow photographer?

Show us what you've come up with.

donotpaint · Jan 31, 2022

These kinds of things are perfect for 3d printing. The process is reasonably precise and very cheap. Public libraries often have 3d printers, and 3d models are bountiful online. It's not a splitter, but I printed a nice 620 spool for an ansco readyflash of my friend's.

Vaughn · Jan 31, 2022

The easiest way I can think of would be to use rollback on a 4x5 camera with a modified darkslide to expose half the frame. Then flipped the darkslide over to expose the other half.

I have done this with 8x10 and 11x14, but the same concept should work for most roll backs. I have attached a example of a modified 8x10 darkslide for making two 4x10 images on a 8x10 sheet of film.

It could possibly also work with some 120 cameras that can do multiple exposure and use a darkslide.

eli griggs · Feb 1, 2022

Vaughn, thanks for the tip, I'll have to remember this for future use, however, we're actually speaking to physically slitting 120 film into smaller sizes; in my case, 120 to 127 for 4"x4".

donotpaint, I had no thought of a public library as having 3d printers, but I'll check my local main library to see what they have in the way of small printers.

Do you have any favorite designs to share?

Cheers

Vaughn · Feb 1, 2022

Ah,,,a different kind of splitters! I split this scene then!

wjlapier · Feb 2, 2022

Not home made but works great. I've slit many rolls with this device. Found a few orphan rolls in the back of the freezer to work out the issues then I finally got it to slit perfectly from 120 to 127. For me the issue is obtaining more spools. There is a discussion on RFF about it.

https://www.camerhack.it/product/fck127-mk-3/

Europan · Feb 2, 2022

A splitter I made for somebody some years ago
Two 16-mm. strips can be cut from 35-mm. film.
A view of one of the cutting drums

eli griggs · Feb 2, 2022

Looks interesting I do shoot 16mm in Minolta 16/16II.

Can you show some more views of your work here?

Europan said:
A splitter I made for somebody some years ago
Two 16-mm. strips can be cut from 35-mm. film.
A view of one of the cutting drums

View attachment 297243

View attachment 297244

Tel · Feb 2, 2022

I've got one of these I bought years ago--they're still for sale on the evil place. A bit crude but well engineered. Shortly after I got this, I came into a large frozen stash of 46mm film, so I mainly use it to cut down 120 backing paper.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/165305391258?hash=item267cf8189a:g:IC8AAOSwOKxcO-fw

Valerie · Feb 2, 2022

wjlapier said:
Not home made but works great. I've slit many rolls with this device. Found a few orphan rolls in the back of the freezer to work out the issues then I finally got it to slit perfectly from 120 to 127. For me the issue is obtaining more spools. There is a discussion on RFF about it.

https://www.camerhack.it/product/fck127-mk-3/

I have this as well. Works great after a bit of practice. And pays for itself quickly compared to the cost of buying 127 film.

Don_ih · Feb 2, 2022

Europan said:
A splitter I made for somebody some years ago
Two 16-mm. strips can be cut from 35-mm. film.
A view of one of the cutting drums

View attachment 297243

View attachment 297244

This is by far better than any design that uses a blade. Did you buy the cylinders or did you make them?
I made one to cut 70mm down for 120. Mine uses a blade and the film base is extremely hard on it.

xya · Feb 2, 2022

I think that there are definitions mixed up here: there are film splitters and film slitters. Film splitters split film like 16mm to get 2 times 8mm film. These have a long history and are easy to find.

The OP seems to be in search of a film slitter (somtimes called slicer). A slitter slits film into strips of smaller formats of any size. I have several slitters, they were made by this guy who still is on Ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/165305391258?hash=item267cf8189a:g:IC8AAOSwOKxcO-fw . You can ask him to make any size you want. I have a Russian 21 mm camera, so he made me a slitter that cuts one strip of 21mm and 2 strips of 16mm out of 120 film. The remaining 8.5mm go into Minox cassettes, but it's bit too small, the so-called 8mm Minox being 9.25mm.

He also made me a slitter to cut one strip of 16mm and one of 9.25mm out of 35mm film, leaving the perfs to both sides. Both work perfectly.

ic-racer · Feb 2, 2022

I got this Minox splitter a while ago. It is really nice.
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/minox-film-slitter-jimmy-li-slitter-splitter.177125/

Europan · Feb 3, 2022

Don Heisz said:
Did you buy the cylinders or did you make them?

I did everything myself. The cutting drums are made from a through-hardening tool steel, turned roughly prior to the hardening (nice martensite), then the ID honed to a slide fit, set up on a ground mandrel, and the exterior ground. I have left 0,01 mm play between each of the cylindrical lengths. You can just nest them together in your hands but easier on their shafts. On the inside I turned them free, so the drums revolve on two outward surfaces each. In between I have left a piece of felt into which I worked some grease.

Don_ih · Feb 3, 2022

Europan said:
I did everything myself. The cutting drums are made from a through-hardening tool steel, turned roughly prior to the hardening (nice martensite), then the ID honed to a slide fit, set up on a ground mandrel, and the exterior ground. I have left 0,01 mm play between each of the cylindrical lengths. You can just nest them together in your hands but easier on their shafts. On the inside I turned them free, so the drums revolve on two outward surfaces each. In between I have left a piece of felt into which I worked some grease.

I thought you did it all. It looks like an exceptional little device.

eli griggs · Feb 3, 2022

Plus 1.

Don Heisz said:
I thought you did it all. It looks like an exceptional little device.

Europan · Feb 4, 2022

It was made on order but sold too cheaply. Had I asked the correct price the commission would never have come. Worse than that, the customer never used it because he failed to pull the strips around an additional rubber roller on his contraption. The strips need to be pulled straight.

Slitters employ rotary disc knives, the cutting edges barely touching each other. Polyester webs are too tough for cylinders, the necessary energy in shearing goes up insanely. Another advantage of discs is that you can shift them on the arbor for varying strip widths. On the other hand, if the arbors are long, the pressure can bend them and separate the blades. Mirko Böddecker has reported on this.

Best home made film splitters?

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