Do your 120 film spools have holes all the way through? (Using adaptor reels in a Graflex '51' roll holder)

My 1/4 plate reflex camera has a Graflex '51' film roll holder. Until I'm ready to begin working with sheet film I'm using these orange adaptor reels with 120 film. It's a workable system for now. Pictures below to show how it loads into the 51 roll film holder. Gives me a bit more film real-estate for the moment (I'm getting 60x80mm negative images)

Daniel is a 3D printing wizard and sells these clever adaptor reels (bid-with https://www.ebay.com/sch/bid-with/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= ). They fit a 120 film spool centrally into a '51' holder. It's not perfect because the spool ends are slightly wider than is ideal, but it's certainly easier than re-loading onto the big wooden '51' spools.

I'm now using the orange reels with just the pins to fit into the cross heads of my 120 spools. I tried to use the threaded bolt to go right through the spool and discovered that neither Ilford nor Rollei BW 120 film spools have holes all the way through.

So here's the question: Do your 120 film spools have holes right through? Which ones do and which ones don't? It would help Daniel to be able to add these details to his listing. You can also 'win' a set of 3d printed reels for your own non-standard camera by giving him the dimensions. Look at the end of one of his listings for the details.

My next adventure will be loading 220 film using this system. Worth a try to get a few more images between each reload.

ps. If you want to try this at home be sure to close off the red window on your film holder. With the film centrally loaded you can't see the numbers anyway and it could fog your top film edge.
Find I need to wind between 4.5 half turns at the start of the film and 2 half turns at the end to ensure the images are properly spaced on the film.

Since you slip the end of the 120 paper into the slot in the middle of the spool, I would think that holes would be a source of light leakage-- not to mention which, the paper itself would be in the way of the bolt.

Fuji 400H appears to have a channel all the way through, but it's broken up by a couple of bumps and a hook for the hole in the Fuji backing paper.

Kodak appears to have solid ends, with the hole going in about 13mm.

Metal spools should have lengthwise through clearance for that bolt. I don't know of any plastic 120 spools that do.

All of my plastic 120 spools do not have holes that go through the entire length.


Correction in bold. This is only the second time in my life that I was wrong.

None of the plastic 120 spools I have here, which are mostly Kodak and Ilford, have a hole going all the way through axially. When I put an depth gauge or the point of a small screwdriver into the drive slots at the end, it is clear that the part that obstructs the central axis is fairly thin. That is, you can think of there being a thin "cap" that closes off the end of the drive slots, between the drive slots and the central area with a slit for the paper leader.

The metal pins he's using to drive the 120 spool seem like a good idea. On plastic 120-to-35mm adapters, the plastic tips that fit into a 35mm cartridge are pretty small and could break off (it hasn't happened to me inside a camera, but I have an adapter that was dropped and one of the tips broke off).

I think the 'really old' 120 spools with a wooden core had a hole all the way through the core, longitudinally.

Donald Qualls said:

Metal spools should have lengthwise through clearance for that bolt. I don't know of any plastic 120 spools that do.

Click to expand...

I thought I remembered that about the metal spools. Can't find a metal one in any of my boxes, although I stil have a couple of wooden ones!

I did find one plastic spool that has an opening all the way through the middle. The problem is, I don't know what film it came with-- I suspect it arrived in one of my cameras.