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dust cabinet for film, I dont have one

lhalcong

Member
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Joined
Nov 26, 2012
Messages
245
Location
Miami, Flori
Format
35mm
for those of us who cannot afford, not feasible to get one of those cabinets where you dry film dust free, what do people use out there to minimize the possibility of dust settling on wet film while it is drying in the bathroom.
Any ideas I can put to use. ?

thanks
 
I keep a small air cleaner running in my dark room, havent had any problems with dust since installation.
 
Dry in a shower with the curtain or door closed.

Before you put the film in there, wet the shower down lightly to help minimize dust.

Higher humidity helps too.
 
Zippered clear vinyl garment wardrobe bags can be hung from rods and hooks anywhere. Cheap, available at home stores, and portable. Some have permeable linen-type bottoms to allow restricted air flow. I still use mine for roll film inside my lab, although I dry sheet film in the open.
 
My darkroom is quite clean so I generally just use a string of nylon line suspended over the sink with clothespins. But I do have a homemade
drying cabinet too. I used melamine-coated shower enclosure board and matching alum moulding, put a small residential room air cleaner at one
end, and a permanent-style cone coffee filter at the opposite air intake end. It runs quiet and clean. A short monofilament clothesline is inside.
 
I have an electrostatic air purifier in the darkroom, and a row of clothes pins over the sink. I haven't had a problem with dust getting on the negatives after processing.
 
ROL's recommendation works very well and is dirt cheap.

Mike
 
I'll echo the garment bag idea.
 
...i checked out the vinyl idea and didn't like the idea of potentially sticking, but if it works, go for it. It's the easiest and cheapest way. I built mine out of plywood, drilled some holes for metal rods with normal clothes hangers and put hinges and a hook lock on it. It cost about $50 and did the trick. Then a year later I found someone about 60km away selling a pro-lab for a price I couldn't pass up and it came with a dryer cabinet. He even drove it all to my house without advanced payment. It's worth checking kijiji/craigslist to see what's being given away.
 
I just run the shower on full hot for a few minutes with the windows and doors closed while the Fixer is in. Then I turn the shower off while I rinse the film and hang it up. Haven't had a problem with dust yet...

(although, given the price of water in the driest state in the driest continent, one of those bags would probably be cheaper for me in the long run)
 

Intersting. I have never seen them.
But they are too short to accept type 135. It would have to be hung in a loop, what would not be that of a problem, but wiping off would have to take place outside that cabinet.
 
They are made in a variety of sizes. One of mine, suit length, is long enough for 135, though I no longer use it (or 135). I don't "wipe" film, roll or otherwise, inside or out of drying cabinet. PhotoFlo and that's it (distilled water rinse only for sheet). If you don't want to loop a roll, cut it and hang the sections. That will have to be done eventually anyway, unless you're processing movie film.
 
I do something similar to the garment bag thing. It was Les McClean who wrote about it somewhere. You basically have a wooden base about 30cm square and a similarly sized frame at the top which has hanging points for the films. Then you basically just have a long material "bag" which seals at the front with velcro. Works great and takes up hardly any sapecw hen packed away.
 
I'll be the contrarian here. I think I know why every suggestion here works.

Dust doesn't stick to film as it dries. It drains off with the sheet of water.

I hang my film without benefit of any protection after dipping in a solution of PhotoFlo and filtered water.

My darkroom in the garage is "infested" with dust. When the sun comes in late afternoon I can see the dancing particles. Yet my dry negatives look clean and rarely have any significant dust issues when I print.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
^ this. I live in Houston, so I have the benefit of humidity keeping the dust down, but I live in a 118-year-old house and I don't have trouble with dust using the same system. If you can get the water off the emulsion quickly (what Photo Flo is for), there's not as much for dust to stick to.
 

That is actually the system the Jobo Mistral uses, though added by a heated Ventilator at the top.
 
I was going to say 'the outside cloths line over the kids sandpit near the town's saw mill' but that would just be silly now.

+1 for in the shower. I have a bit of fishing line attached to some suction cups so I can hang them in the cubicle. Try and get that room nice and steamy before you hang and you will be trouble free.
 
hoffy said:
I was going to say 'the outside cloths line over the kids sandpit near the town's saw mill' but that would just be silly now.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you use photoflo.
 
You can get a lot of interesting toning effects with an outside clothesline, especially if a lot of seagulls are flying around.
 

I don't have a drying cabinet, not because I can't afford one, but because I don't want one. They blow dust around. It's far better to let your film dry in ambient temperature in ways suggested by previous posts. You just have to wait longer for it to dry. Patience is a virtue.
 
Another vote for the shower. I don't run the water ahead of time, the humidity is usually high enough that dust is not a problem. Our shower has a door on it so the air is still, and that plus the humidity keeps my negatives dust free during the drying process.

But don't worry, they get their share of dust later on.
 
I lived for a few years near the ocean in SoCal and used to hang my film to dry out on the balcony overnight, salt air, wind blowing, yet my negs were always fine. I have never had any problems with dust on negatives for two decades no matter how I dried them; high humidity, low humidity, hotels, sea air, wind.... I have had issues with water spots, but that is easy to fix. The only dust problems I have had were with sheet film, but those problems had to do with dust on the film before exposure, not after development.

In other words, don't worry about it too much. If you don't drop your negs on the floor when they are wet, you shouldn't have an issue with dust.
 
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