Has anyone tried B's 4x5 reel?
A little late in reply, but YES, I have 4 of B's reels for 4X5; 1 for 5X7; two of his processors and 1 extender. B's stuff is well made and finished; his rotating drive unit works great and he provides a 1-year warranty (which I've used), and it all works with Paterson tanks. Burp the tank when after pouring in your chemistry and you don't drip a drop. I typically develop B&W with PyrocatHD these days (used to do D23) and DEVELOP using semi-stand. This means my developer step uses hand agitation, but I have done rotation with B's for C41 and it worked fabulously. Sold all my Jobo gear (reels, tanks and processing gear) together with a Heiland processor to Catlabs.... and B's lightweight gear does a BETTER job IMHO than all of that with smaller footprint and at lower cost. Fairly, Jobo taught me.... and got my first "no problem" development, but with more years under the belt, I wanted to step up my game, reduce grain and pick up accutance.
Loading a B's reel is as simple as it gets. No tricks to stump you in the dark. No mistakes to find afterwards of a sheet slipping out of place. Lightyears more reliable in this loading than one of Jobo's 6-sheet 2040 reels. FWIW, in trying to debug the 2040 reels I found most weren't trying to do 6 sheets but more typically confined it to 4 sheets. Tells you something. Yes, I even had the Jobo loader for that and STILL found it a struggle. Thought about the larger Jobo tanks which many recommended, but the cost was significantly higher and would have involved an upgraded (bigger) Jobo than the small CPE2 I had on hand. Chose instead to try, prove out and then switch completely to B's stuff and Paterson tanks. Highly recommend B's stuff, and yes, you can rotate these tanks with the burp induced vaccuum without a spill or drip. Good to have rotary development for C41 and it works fine for B&W, too. The C41 process is short enough I've not had a temp control problem either.... that was any more significant than experienced with a JOBO.
But B recommended hand agitation for development, and I started going there. Found semi-stand for B&W and haven't gone back. Yes it takes a bit longer, but the results have been worth it. And I'd say tough to beat no matter what equipment you pick to use. With B&W, I do semistand for the Development step and rotary for every other.
Much to be said for
BZTS's approach, too.... and I did pick up the last available tubes of similar design for 4X5 from
Steve Sherman. Sherman also lays out how you can build the same with tubes and caps from Home Depot. Worth a look at Steve's stuff:
The Power of Process