DIY options for standard paper developer

[albada]

I think especially ID62 ticks all the boxes of the OP.

It does indeed.
Also, the OP prefers to use hard well-water, and that requires adding a chelation agent to the developer. EDTA works for ID-62, but not for E-72 as it accelerates the Fenton reaction. Thus E-72 requires distilled/DI water, boosting its cost.

BTW, 4 g/L of disodium EDTA successfully chelates my hard San Diego water, but if yours is much harder and you get precipitation, try 6.8 g/L instead of 4. I calculated the amount needed for the worst-case hardness my Internet search found, and got 1.7 g/L for the working solution, hence 6.8 g/L for the stock solution.

Mark

 

[koraks]

I just accept the calcium precipitate clouds for what they are and do without a chelating agent. The developer may not look as pretty as it could, but functionally the chelating agent isn't necessary.

 

[Anon Ymous]

It does indeed.
Also, the OP prefers to use hard well-water, and that requires adding a chelation agent to the developer. EDTA works for ID-62, but not for E-72 as it accelerates the Fenton reaction. Thus E-72 requires distilled/DI water, boosting its cost.

BTW, 4 g/L of disodium EDTA successfully chelates my hard San Diego water, but if yours is much harder and you get precipitation, try 6.8 g/L instead of 4. I calculated the amount needed for the worst-case hardness my Internet search found, and got 1.7 g/L for the working solution, hence 6.8 g/L for the stock solution.

Mark

I've mixed ID62 with the addition of 2g/l sodium hexametaphosphate. I live in a very hard water area and didn't get any precipitate.

 

[BHuij]

Regarding mixing powders together, I recall reports that developers can be damaged when stored with alkalis, so some companies use two packets, one with developers, and the other with everything else.

Mark

Okay, good to know. The way I'm picturing this is probably 3D printing a handful of containers that act as storage for one tray worth of dry chems. Perhaps the obvious solution would be to just design it such that each chemical lives in its own isolated compartment of the container, or at least that I have separate compartments for "alkalis" and "others."

 

[GregY]

Okay, good to know. The way I'm picturing this is probably 3D printing a handful of containers that act as storage for one tray worth of dry chems. Perhaps the obvious solution would be to just design it such that each chemical lives in its own isolated compartment of the container, or at least that I have separate compartments for "alkalis" and "others."

Are you going to get a "spoon recipe".....or buy a scale ?
I was under the impression you were looking for a liquid developer?

 

[andynguyen]

It does indeed.
Also, the OP prefers to use hard well-water, and that requires adding a chelation agent to the developer. EDTA works for ID-62, but not for E-72 as it accelerates the Fenton reaction. Thus E-72 requires distilled/DI water, boosting its cost.

BTW, 4 g/L of disodium EDTA successfully chelates my hard San Diego water, but if yours is much harder and you get precipitation, try 6.8 g/L instead of 4. I calculated the amount needed for the worst-case hardness my Internet search found, and got 1.7 g/L for the working solution, hence 6.8 g/L for the stock solution.

Mark

(Fe)nton reaction requires iron to take place. If your water isnt having iron, dont worry about it.

I've used E72 for years, always premixed and stored as long as 6 months without issues. I dont even use distilled water. It lasts >24h in open tray at 1:1 dilution as well. Dont worry abt sudden death either, since you can watch as paper develops, unlike film. Afaik, sudden death occurs when phenidone is dead, not ascorbic. There's plenty of ascorbic to go around.

 

[ags2mikon]

I like your idea for the 3-d printed jars / containers. I used film cans and pharmacy bottles and small glass bottles. I scale it out into a set of bottles to make 10-12 tray mixes. I also do it for film developers too. I label the bottles and number them in the order of mixing. It takes only a few mins to do.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

(Fe)nton reaction requires iron to take place. If your water isnt having iron, dont worry about it.

I've used E72 for years, always premixed and stored as long as 6 months without issues. I dont even use distilled water. It lasts >24h in open tray at 1:1 dilution as well. Dont worry abt sudden death either, since you can watch as paper develops, unlike film. Afaik, sudden death occurs when phenidone is dead, not ascorbic. There's plenty of ascorbic to go around.

Ha, finally somebody who confirms what I was trying to explain!

 

[relistan]

(Fe)nton reaction requires iron to take place. If your water isnt having iron, dont worry about it.

I've used E72 for years, always premixed and stored as long as 6 months without issues. I dont even use distilled water. It lasts >24h in open tray at 1:1 dilution as well. Dont worry abt sudden death either, since you can watch as paper develops, unlike film. Afaik, sudden death occurs when phenidone is dead, not ascorbic. There's plenty of ascorbic to go around.

While your point about being able to see that your paper developer has failed is true, that's also pretty inconvenient.

Regarding the rest: no, you will likely get iron as an impurity in your carbonate so it will be there even if you use pure water. You need a copper and iron sequestrant to prevent that, or to mix in a solution that does not contain enough water for a reaction to happen. If you are using tap water from copper plumbing (e.g. much of America), you are almost certainly going to have copper present.

And again no, sudden death is the result of the Fenton reaction and it's the ascorbic acid that first gets killed. This has been experimented with a lot and you can search this site for more info.

With this reaction it's completely subjective to the environment, the water, the actual chemicals you have on hand. Some people will be fine and others won't. It's just rolling the dice.

 

[andynguyen]

While your point about being able to see that your paper developer has failed is true, that's also pretty inconvenient.

Regarding the rest: no, you will likely get iron as an impurity in your carbonate so it will be there even if you use pure water. You need a copper and iron sequestrant to prevent that, or to mix in a solution that does not contain enough water for a reaction to happen. If you are using tap water from copper plumbing (e.g. much of America), you are almost certainly going to have copper present.

And again no, sudden death is the result of the Fenton reaction and it's the ascorbic acid that first gets killed. This has been experimented with a lot and you can search this site for more info.

With this reaction it's completely subjective to the environment, the water, the actual chemicals you have on hand. Some people will be fine and others won't. It's just rolling the dice.

Idk if there's another type of Fenton reaction you are referring to. The one I know & sometimes use in my field of wastewater treatment is nothing quite applicable here:
- Fe only acts as a catalyst. A strong oxidizing agent still needs to be present to do the oxidisation
- pH is controlled in the 3-5 range, not alkaline like in developer because then Fe3 will precipate out & become useless as catalyst. Same goes for copper.
In another word, we have to engineer it to make it happen. And we hate it when we do because it's pretty expensive to operate.

 

[relistan]

Idk if there's another type of Fenton reaction you are referring to. The one I know & sometimes use in my field of wastewater treatment is nothing quite applicable here:
- Fe only acts as a catalyst. A strong oxidizing agent still needs to be present to do the oxidisation
- pH is controlled in the 3-5 range, not alkaline like in developer because then Fe3 will precipate out & become useless as catalyst. Same goes for copper.
In another word, we have to engineer it to make it happen. And we hate it when we do because it's pretty expensive to operate.

Just read from here on, from folks who really know their stuff, including the late PE who worked at Kodak for decades in their research and development labs: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...-developers-please.122879/page-3#post-1626430

 

[relistan]

This thread is pretty off track. It sounds like @koraks and @albada referred the OP to ID-62 and that's probably where it should end. I'm out

 

[BHuij]

Are you going to get a "spoon recipe".....or buy a scale ?
I was under the impression you were looking for a liquid developer?

@GregY I already have a precision scale I use for ammo reloading. I'll definitely be weighing out ingredients here, it's not any more difficult than volumetric measuring, and it removes one more variable that might cause problems.

(Fe)nton reaction requires iron to take place. If your water isnt having iron, dont worry about it.

I've used E72 for years, always premixed and stored as long as 6 months without issues. I dont even use distilled water. It lasts >24h in open tray at 1:1 dilution as well. Dont worry abt sudden death either, since you can watch as paper develops, unlike film. Afaik, sudden death occurs when phenidone is dead, not ascorbic. There's plenty of ascorbic to go around.

I would be flabbergasted to find out my tap water doesn't have iron. It comes out of the tap at PH 8.1 and leaves hard water stains everywhere

While your point about being able to see that your paper developer has failed is true, that's also pretty inconvenient.

Regarding the rest: no, you will likely get iron as an impurity in your carbonate so it will be there even if you use pure water. You need a copper and iron sequestrant to prevent that, or to mix in a solution that does not contain enough water for a reaction to happen. If you are using tap water from copper plumbing (e.g. much of America), you are almost certainly going to have copper present.

And again no, sudden death is the result of the Fenton reaction and it's the ascorbic acid that first gets killed. This has been experimented with a lot and you can search this site for more info.

With this reaction it's completely subjective to the environment, the water, the actual chemicals you have on hand. Some people will be fine and others won't. It's just rolling the dice.

While I don't particularly care which specific component of the developer is failing to cause sudden death, it's probably a nonissue for me. I'm hoping to avoid keeping a stock solution, instead mixing directly from powders to working strength and then discarding at the end of the print session (unless I have another one planned for tomorrow, in which case I might try and get two sessions out of one batch).

If I do ultimately end up needing to use a stock solution, it's not a big deal for me to toss a scrap of paper into the tray with the lights on at the start of every session to confirm that Fenton hasn't screwed me over

 

[npl]

Depending where you live tetenal chemicals can be an option https://tetenal.com/en/consumer-shop/black-white-chemistry/paper-developer/

I use eukobrom. Liquid, not very expensive, no problem with tap water. It can be use one shot but also reused within days or even weeks if stored properly

 

[Doremus Scudder]

I mix print developers from scratch immediately before use, using spoon recipes.

Here are my recipes for D-72 and ID-62:

D-72
(to make 1 liter of working solution)

Water ---------------------- ~120°F
a pinch of sodium sulfite (Metol dissolves better if you add a bit of sulfite first - a pinch is all you need)
Metol ----------------------- 1/3 tsp (you won't find a measuring spoon this size, but just estimate, it's not critical)
Sodium Sulfite -------------- 2 tsp
Hydroquinone -------------- 1/2 Tbsp short (i.e., just a bit less than 1/2 Tbsp - again, it's not critical)
Sodium carbonate (mono) - 1 1/2 Tbsp
Potassium bromide --------- 1/8 tsp
Water to make -------------- 1 liter

(Triple the above recipe to make a 1-liter stock solution that you dilute 1+2)

ID-62
(to make 2 liters of working solution - Alternately, you can simply double the recipe below and mix it to just one liter and have a one-liter stock solution that you then dilute 1+3 for a working solution. The stock keeps for some months.)
Water ----------------------- ~120°F
Sodium sulfite --------------- 1 Tbsp + 1/4 tsp
Hydroquinone --------------- 2 1/8 tsp
Sodium carbonate (mono) -- 2 Tbsp
Phenidone ------------------- 1/8 tsp
Potassium bromide ---------- rounded 1/8 tsp
Benzotriazole --------------- 10 ml of a 1% solution (which you make up beforehand - 10g/liter - keeps forever)

ID-62 is my current favorite. It has a long tray life (I often use it for two sessions, storing it in a bottle between sessions).

Hope this helps,

Doremus

 

[andynguyen]

I would be flabbergasted to find out my tap water doesn't have iron. It comes out of the tap at PH 8.1 and leaves hard water stains everywhere

Hardness mostly come in the form of calcium and some magnesium. Iron is not as common or alkaline as those 2. And if your stains are of white & not rust color, i wouldnt worry much about iron.

 

[Don_ih]

Benzotriazole --------------- 10 ml of a 1% solution (which you make up beforehand - 100g/liter - keeps forever)

10 g per litre.

 

[BHuij]

I mix print developers from scratch immediately before use, using spoon recipes.

Here are my recipes for D-72 and ID-62:

D-72
(to make 1 liter of working solution)

Water ---------------------- ~120°F
a pinch of sodium sulfite (Metol dissolves better if you add a bit of sulfite first - a pinch is all you need)
Metol ----------------------- 1/3 tsp (you won't find a measuring spoon this size, but just estimate, it's not critical)
Sodium Sulfite -------------- 2 tsp
Hydroquinone -------------- 1/2 Tbsp short (i.e., just a bit less than 1/2 Tbsp - again, it's not critical)
Sodium carbonate (mono) - 1 1/2 Tbsp
Potassium bromide --------- 1/8 tsp
Water to make -------------- 1 liter

(Triple the above recipe to make a 1-liter stock solution that you dilute 1+2)

ID-62
(to make 2 liters of working solution - Alternately, you can simply double the recipe below and mix it to just one liter and have a one-liter stock solution that you then dilute 1+3 for a working solution. The stock keeps for some months.)
Water ----------------------- ~120°F
Sodium sulfite --------------- 1 Tbsp + 1/4 tsp
Hydroquinone --------------- 2 1/8 tsp
Sodium carbonate (mono) -- 2 Tbsp
Phenidone ------------------- 1/8 tsp
Potassium bromide ---------- rounded 1/8 tsp
Benzotriazole --------------- 10 ml of a 1% solution (which you make up beforehand - 100g/liter - keeps forever)

ID-62 is my current favorite. It has a long tray life (I often use it for two sessions, storing it in a bottle between sessions).

Hope this helps,

Doremus

Several people have recommended ID-62 over D-72, primarily those who prefer PQ to MQ formulas - which seems to basically come down to shelf life. However, the E72 recipe I'm using uses Phenidone in place of Metol already, so what advantage does ID-62 have over E-72?

 

[koraks]

ID62 doesn't rely on ascorbic acid, which is more risky in terms of stability in solution than hydroquinone. Hydroquinone on the other hand is more toxic than ascorbic acid, which is also easier to obtain. There are valid arguments on both sides that would turn the tables any number of times, so it's down to personal preference mostly.

 

[BHuij]

ID62 doesn't rely on ascorbic acid, which is more risky in terms of stability in solution than hydroquinone. Hydroquinone on the other hand is more toxic than ascorbic acid, which is also easier to obtain. There are valid arguments on both sides that would turn the tables any number of times, so it's down to personal preference mostly.

Yeah, for my use case where I'm hoping to store things dry rather than in solution, seems like there's no specific reason to avoid the ascorbate, particularly if it's slightly cheaper and more eco friendly.

 

[albada]

I just accept the calcium precipitate clouds for what they are and do without a chelating agent. The developer may not look as pretty as it could, but functionally the chelating agent isn't necessary.

@koraks, do the precipitate clouds leave any white powder stuck on the gelatin? Even when viewed in a loupe?

Mark

 

[Don_ih]

@koraks, do the precipitate clouds leave any white powder stuck on the gelatin? Even when viewed in a loupe?

Mark

Why would it? The print is dry and hard when it goes in the developer. It's in there for 2 minutes (I use ID62 for 1.5 minutes, normally). Then it goes in stop, fix, and a long wash. If anything is left from the developing stage, I'd be amazed.

 

[albada]

Why would it? The print is dry and hard when it goes in the developer. It's in there for 2 minutes (I use ID62 for 1.5 minutes, normally). Then it goes in stop, fix, and a long wash. If anything is left from the developing stage, I'd be amazed.

Why would it? Because precipitates are solid particles that (I think) will not be dissolved in the post-dev steps of stop/fix/wash. It's conceivable they could stick to the emulsion in the dev, and stay there forever. BTW, thanks for mentioning your normal time is 1.5 minutes in ID-62. I've been using 2 minutes, and was thinking of reducing that.

Mark

 

[Don_ih]

Why would it? Because precipitates are solid particles that (I think) will not be dissolved in the post-dev steps of stop/fix/wash. It's conceivable they could stick to the emulsion in the dev, and stay there forever. BTW, thanks for mentioning your normal time is 1.5 minutes in ID-62. I've been using 2 minutes, and was thinking of reducing that.

Mark

My point was the paper emulsion is not softened during dev - or at least not much - so the precipitate wouldn't stick that easily.

I find ID62 is done at 1.5 minutes, at least with the majority of papers I use (all Ilford). Some of the ancient papers (like Medalist or Kodabromide, some of which is 60 years old) need over 2 minutes.

Lately, I've only been using ID62. It really does last a long time, even at working strength.

 

[albada]

My point was the paper emulsion is not softened during dev - or at least not much - so the precipitate wouldn't stick that easily.

The OP (@BHuij) will appreciate that bit of good news. It means he can forget about adding a sequestrant such as EDTA.

I find ID62 is done at 1.5 minutes, at least with the majority of papers I use (all Ilford). Some of the ancient papers (like Medalist or Kodabromide, some of which is 60 years old) need over 2 minutes.

60 years old! And I keep paper refrigerated because I worry about it being at room temperature for a week. I guess I'm being over-cautious.

Lately, I've only been using ID62. It really does last a long time, even at working strength.

And that's more good news for the OP.

Mark