Cleaning / soaking Thermaphot rollers?

Tom Kershaw · Apr 24, 2011

After leaving my ACP-505 aside since last December I came to run the unit again last week and even after soaking the roller units in warm water for a few hours, I've found the machine is still depositing crud in a definite striped pattern across prints. I'm reluctant for anything but warm water or process solutions to come into contact with the rollers but perhaps there is a good cleaning solution option? If I recall correctly, Tetenal put out a product at one point but I'm not sure of the current situation.

Tom

Martin Aislabie · Apr 24, 2011

Hi Tom

Have you thought about NOVA Tab Buster ? - http://www.novadarkroom.com/product/340/Nova_Tarbuster.html

Martin

Tom Kershaw · Apr 24, 2011

Martin,

Thanks. I've not used that product before but I might put in a call to Nova next week.

Tom

Mike Wilde · Apr 25, 2011

I keep a stash of long out of date ep/2 paper just for the gelatine coating layer it holds; I run them though the machine right side up and upside down at the first sign of gunkies. The upside down ones do a good job at cleaning the transfer racks.

I have a fujimoto, with all hard rubber rollers. I have sucessfully cleaned it back from the crud encusted mess I got it in using dilute toilet bowl cleaner, and nylon dish scouring pads, in addition to a lot of paper towels.

I always drain chems to storage bottles then feed my processor a load of water as a rinse, then drain before retiring it after a printing session.

Tom Kershaw · Apr 25, 2011

Mike,

I ran the machine with warm water all of yesterday evening. About an hour ago I reremoved the first of the three wash tanks and found the water was full of unspecifiable "flakes" so I've washed out the three tanks and will report back later.

Tom

Tom Kershaw · Apr 25, 2011

Well, the attempt mentioned above didn't work. I suspect some variety of cleaning solution or bleach may be required, however, I'm not convinced 'Nova Tarbuster' is the correct product as I'm familiar with the type of tar that is often found on the Nova slot units which is not the same as the "gunk" on the Thermaphot rollers.

Tom

Mike Wilde · Apr 25, 2011

Any possibility of saturated blix on the last run? I came close to that one, and these flakes starter to show up on prints, as the the silver started to plate out. Not a very sweet one to clean up from.

I am fortunate that in my unit, and a Kreonite I restored (and then scrapped as too big for me), the rollers are modestly easy to disassemble and wipe down.

Tom Kershaw · Apr 25, 2011

Mike,

Yes, I have experienced silver plating out before but on this occasion I've been using freshly mixed blix (Kodak RA). On your second point, the ACP-505 is fairly compact for size (20" print width) and the roller transfer units are rather tightly packed.

Tom

Tom Kershaw · May 8, 2011

An update: I bought a 5L bulk pack of the Nova Tarbuster product. Diluted 1+9 it seems to work well in terms of cleaning "gunk" from the rollers; however it does not make an impact on the rollers which have silver stains / deposits.

This afternoon I tried applying a 20% solution of Potassium Ferricyanide directly to the stains however this appears to have limited effect on contact. Pulling apart the Thermaphot rollers for soaking seems non-trivial to say the least.

Tom

richard ide · May 8, 2011

I had a Dupont 49" processor and would get silver buildup on tank and rollers. The bulk of it would come off using a green Scotchbright pad. I used Potassium Dichromate / Sulphuric Acid cleaner made by Kodak a couple of times with excellent results. If you use the cleaner; fill with your old developer and run for a few minutes before discarding and using new developer.

Cleaning / soaking Thermaphot rollers?

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