Film become more difficult to insert in reel after 2/3

[Diapositivo]

I am new to film developing. I begun with E-6, I find no problem. I can recommend in-house E-6 processing to anybody having the space. What I find problematic is loading the reel.

I loaded my third roll today, and had to load it in the spiral three times. The first two times, after a half, or two thirds, of film insertion the film sort of "refused" to advance into the reel. I had to reload the film in the cartridge, twice. At the third attempt it worked, but it felt "harder" to load near the end. Actually I could not manage to have the last centimetre or so enter inside the groove.

After developing I checked the reel carefully, and the film was correctly sitting in the groove for all its length (the last cm apart).

The first question I have is: is the "stiffening" toward the end of the loading something normal?

If I "apply force" to overcome the stiffening, do I undergo the risk that some of the film, which is already inside the reel, gets out of its groove? (That's my fear).

I use a Jobo rotating processor and so Jobo tanks (1510 in my case). Would SS reels be easier to load? Could I adapt some stainless steel reel to my tank?

Many thanks for your kind help
Fabrizio

 

[erikg]

It shouldn't be giving you any resistance. Jobo recommends clipping the corners of the film to ease in loading, I don't always do it, but some film types seen to need that with the jobo reels. It does the trick. Forcing it probably won't make it jump the groove, but you do risk scratching it, at least that is what I've seen. Of course the reel can't be at all wet, a water drop will cause the film to grip pretty easily.

 

[GeorgesGiralt]

Hello Fabrizio !
You use your reels to process E6. Fine. You've problems loading a film in the reel. This makes me wonder if you put the reel with film in it into the last E6 step ? (Stab as it is called in some kits).
Jobo recommend against it. In fact this cause a residue to stick on the plastic and cause the film loading problem you're having. So this may be the cause.
If I'm right, you've to clean the reels with hot water (as hot as you can sustain) and use a stiff brush to clean the reels under the hot water. It should remove the residue. I had luck on Paterson reels with chlorine bleach (I let the reels soak in for the night) but it may harm the Jobo reels, so try with one reel as they are quite expensive...
Hope this helps.

 

[Rick A]

Sounds like a dirty or damp reel to me. Give it a thorough scrubbing, followed by a long flush with moderatly warm water, and finally dry with a blow dryer on cool setting. I dry my reels in a powered, but not heated, film dryer.

 

[R gould]

Use a sharp pencil to add graphite to the reel by running the tip around the film groves in the reel and you should have no more problems,do it every 2 or 3 times you load a film,Richard

 

[J Rollinger]

I use to have issues all the time loading plastic reels until i removed the little steel balls on the reels.

 

[Diapositivo]

Thanks for your answers.
I bought 3 reels second hand.
They were dirty of chemicals (not very evident until I cleaned them). After accurate cleansing with hot water and dish soap, they changed colour.
I am aware of the recommendation about not letting the reel go inside the final rinse. In fact, for my first two rolls I opened the reels and let the film fall inside the final rinse. The problem with this procedure is that the film acts like a spring and I have to manipulate it to be sure that it is rinsed thoroughly. So yesterday, for my first time, I just immersed the entire reel, with film, in the final rinse, following recommendation from fellow APUGers.

I understand an accumulation of final rinse residue can build on the reel, I will try the third reel and I will try to clean them even better.

I have no steel balls on the reels (Jobo reels) to remove.

The graphite trick sounds very nice. I should "lubricate" the tip of the film I suppose.

I see that there may be a problem with the way I cut the film leader. I will try to avoid any sharp angle (try to "round" the edges).

I will try again today with the graphite trick, and will try to round the edges accurately.

Thanks to everybody.

Fabrizio

 

[acemclynch]

Same problem! I give it a blast with the hair drier and I have no problems afterwards.

 

[Diapositivo]

I think I found where the problem is. After developing this evening roll (a complete disaster, but that's another problem*) I looked at the film while still in the reel, to see if there was any anomaly.

The film was sitting properly within the spiral grove. The innermost tip of the film (the leader) pointed outward and touched against the film on the next spire.

My mistake was to "round" the leader too much really, so that it has some kind of an "inverted U" shape. The grooves keep the film in position from the edges. The center of the film was 4 or 5 mm (or more maybe) longer than the edges. Until the leader is in the outer spires this does not cause any problem. The more the leader advances inside the reel, the more the curvature radius of the spire lowers, so that the film makes a "sharper bend", and the small protruding central part of the film (the base of the "U") tends to sit "tangentially", thus touching the next spire when the leader is well inside the reel.

The solution will be cutting the leader straight |_| and round the edges just a little, little bit.

Fabrizio

* I completely lost my roll today. Maybe I never noticed that the small axis to be inserted inside the reel, before putting axis and reel inside the tank, has got a verse. Anyway this was not present to my mind this afternoon. You cannot insert it just as it comes under your hands in the changing bag. You have to check it is inserted in its own proper orientation. That I failed to do. When I closed the lid, it seemed to be well closed. Well, it wasn't

 

[erikg]

Glad you worked it out. I snip the smallest bit off of the corners, the same way one might do when sliding a strip of film into a sleeve, and the corner wants to dig into the sheet. Happy processing to you!