Bulk loading instructions

[joeyk49]

I recently came into a Watson 100 bulk loader and am eager to start up with it. Only one small problem... it didn't come with instructions...

Can someone point me to a site where I can download instructions or walk me through the process? I seems pretty straight forward. But, looking at the snap cap type cassettes, I can see that I may need to trim the film in order for it to fit into onto the "roller spindle grabber thing-ee" inside the cassette.

I've got a changing bag and/or a light tight space to work from.

Thanks for any and all assistance.

 

[clogz]

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[JD Morgan]

I use once-fired cassettes most of the time, rarely use regular bulk load cassettes.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

You shouldn't need to trim the film to fit it onto the cartridge. Just make sure that you tape all the way around and back onto the film - that way it won't pull away and give you a nasty surprise.

 

[Dean Williams]

Tape it like Kevin says. Masking tape works fine in 3/4 in width. Trying to cut the tongue and punch the hole in the film so you can use the factory slot in the spool is a fiddly process. Remember to gently blow the dust out of the felt before you load the film into the cassette. Oh yea, and the light trap doesn't if you leave it open in the daylight. Have fun. Shoot lots.

 

[Max Power]

If you look here:
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and look on the left-hand frame, you will find a link to eqpt manuals. Keep following it and it will take you to instructions for the Watson bulk loader (as well as others).

Hope this helps,
Kent

 

[David Ruby]

I'm not sure if this applies to the Watsun models, but my Alden model never really counted the frames accurately. What I ended up doing was simply making a note of how many turns I used, then when I developed the film I'd see how many exposures I had. In my case it is 28 turns for about 36 exposures. For some reason the counter never really wored.

 

[joeyk49]

Thanks guys.

One more quick question. How does the bulk loaded film fare with the auto rewind function of most of today's cameras?

 

[clogz]

My Nikon F80 has no problems with bulk loaded film. Don't forget you have to set the filmspeed manually though.

 

[jcausey]

The big key for auto-rewind is to carefully tape the film to the spool, as mentioned above.

 

[carnun]

A colleague of mine has just donated me a Restem bulk loader and a roll of FP4 35mm film. My only problem now is that I don't have a manual or instructions of any sort to load the film into the loader. There seems to be a lot of link to the neu.edu FAQ but that doesn't exist any more. Can anyone help?

I would guess that the loading of the film is quite generic, but what would be great to know are tips to how to know which way around to load the film (in the dark;-) and the best way to ensure that the end of the film is in the right place for loading into canisters.

 

[Roger Hicks]

You might find it useful to look at a three free pages on www.rogerandfrances.com. Go to The Photo School and then to 'How do I...?' You'll find illustrated information on 35mm cassettes for re-loading, general notes on bulk-loading and a copy of the Shirley-Wellard cassette instructions.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[pentaxuser]

While this is not my thread and the originator seems to have solved his problem, I decided that these two sites mentioned by clogz and maxpower would be useful to me as well.

I am having problems. I cannot get to the clogz site at all with the URl mentioned and the pure silver site seems to be about metals with no sign of links to equipment manuals.

Can either/both of you help me?

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[clogz]

Hello Pentaxuser,
I posted the link some two years ago and I think it must have been removed.

Hans

 

[Jerevan]

Here's a good one:

http://www.clubsnap.org/display.php?file=articles/bulkloading/bulk_loading.htm and another one: http://www.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/bulkldr.html (this is the one I used when I started loading).

 

[Flotsam]

Here's a tip that have posted before. Before reloading a previously used cassette, pass the sticky end of a post-it note through the felt light trap to clean any dust or grit off of the felt. The Post-it glue is is just tacky enough to grab the dust without tearing up or pulling out the felt.