Want to Buy Film Drying Cabinet

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logan2z

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For Sale - Film Drying Cabinet

I have a cabinet style film-drying cabinet that I'd like to move on to somebody, or school, etc that could use it more than I do. Its pretty much in perfect shape, Heat an fan works - I just checked it again - and I'll throw in the extra filters as seen in the picture. Available for pick-up...
www.photrio.com
 
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henryyjjames

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that’s from 2020…
 

albada

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They're not hard to make. Use a small fan pulling air through a HEPA filter.

For 35mm, there's an easy solution: Use tall vertical PVC pipes of large enough diameter, and long enough to hold an entire length of a roll. These pipes are fed on the bottom by a fan, or hair dryer with a disabled heater, pulled thru a HEPA filter. Cover the tops of the pipes with caps to keep dust out. To use it, uncap a pipe, clip a weight to the end of the roll, feed the film down the pipe, and hook the film-end at the top with a small piece of straightened paperclip. The film is suspended in the vertical pipe, with dust-free air blowing upward. You don't need to cover the top while the fan is running because the air blowing out the top will prevent dust from entering. Works well, is cheap, and uses almost no floor space.

Mark Overton
 

cliveh

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I would suggest you avoid one, as they blow dust into wet emulsion. Just let your films dry in ambient temperature over 24 hours. Patience is a virtue.
 

mshchem

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You don't need it. You really don't. Gentle air flow. FIRST THING get a dehumidifier and plumb it in so when you have wet sinks etc you get your darkroom dry ASAP. Best way to stop mold and mildew from ruining your lenses and equipment. I have a beautiful 5 foot tall drying cabinet that is only used for friends who stop by and develop in a hurry. Great if you are doing retail work. MHOFWIW , Mike
 

albada

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cliveh said:
I would suggest you avoid one, as they blow dust into wet emulsion. Just let your films dry in ambient temperature over 24 hours. Patience is a virtue.
Click to expand...
"Blow dust" is why you need one. There is dust in the air. You can't eliminate all of it. Every such wandering speck of dust that touches the wet film will stick to the emulsion, creating an embedded spot. During the 15-45 minutes that the emulsion is wet, it is a dust-magnet. That is why I stress using a HEPA filter. With HEPA removing the dust, my negs have no spots. None. They used to have plenty of spots. No more.
 

ags2mikon

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I have 2 film drying cabinets with fans and filters. They are very nice. But I never use the fans. They will create dust. One of the things that I found to reduce dust is high humidity (80% or higher). I have 2 humidifiers in the darkroom that I turn on before I start processing film. I turn them off just before I hang the film. After the film is dry I turn on the A/C and dry out the air again. Ilford weting agent has been the best, better than Kodak photo flo.
 

bags27

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I use a film squeegee and then hang them in my dry-ish basement on a shower rod and cheapo clothes hooks from Amazon. My film dries in ~6 hrs and then I scan. Dust on the film is almost non-existent.
 

Huss

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Do people really let film dry for 6+ hours? Mine dries in about 3 tops. Just leave it hanging in the bathroom.
 

bags27

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henryyjjames said:
I will never squeegee my film— I did once, and it left marks. Never again.
Click to expand...

lots of folks report that, but I never have. FWIW, I use the Dot Line DL-6121 squeegee and replace it around every 100 rolls.
 

bags27

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Huss said:
Do people really let film dry for 6+ hours? Mine dries in about 3 tops. Just leave it hanging in the bathroom.
Click to expand...

You caught me! More like 4 hours for me.

Used to use our spare bathroom, too, and it was great. But some of our kids stayed with us during the pandemic, so I repurposed our cellar. I'm still there and happy using it.
 

Roger Thoms

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Mine dry in about twenty minutes in my Arkay CD-40 film drying cabinet used the fan and moderate heat. I have a good filter on the cabinet and never open the door whil the fan is running. My negatives are cleaner the if I hang them in the shower. Took me quite awhile to find the cabinet and I had to have a new door fabricated for it, but worthwhile for me.

Good luck in your search for a drying cabinet.

Roger
 

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logan2z

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Huss said:
Do people really let film dry for 6+ hours? Mine dries in about 3 tops. Just leave it hanging in the bathroom.
Click to expand...

I've been leaving mine to dry for 24 hours. Probably way overkill, but I figure it's best to be sure before filing them in Printfile sleeves and risking the emulsion sticking to the plastic.
 

MattKing

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I develop one day, hang them to dry in our bath/shower, and then usually cut and sleeve them before taking a shower the next morning.
If I'm in a hurry, I will cut an sleeve them 3 - 5 hours after hanging to dry - it depends on how humid it is.
 

madNbad

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I’m only using 135 but I’ll hang them in the shower, use my fingers to squeegee the excess water then a folded Kimwipe pulled lightly over the length of the film. I think it was Adrian Bacon who suggested the Kimwipes and I’m glad I tried it.
 

cliveh

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MattKing said:
I develop one day, hang them to dry in our bath/shower, and then usually cut and sleeve them before taking a shower the next morning.
If I'm in a hurry, I will cut an sleeve them 3 - 5 hours after hanging to dry - it depends on how humid it is.
Click to expand...

Amen
 

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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I happen to work in my garage, which is not the greatest space because I'm on a slab of concrete and there will be some dirt brought in from the outside (it's a garage).

But I keep it clean to the best of my abilities, and when it comes to drying film, I wash, rinse in photoflo+distilled for 2 mins, and just let drip. I get out of the place, make sure I don't shuffle the air, and the negs come out spotless.

I noticed that when I got spots on my negatives, it was mainly because of processing. For a while, I was reusing Sistan, because I read on the bottle that it had a capacity of X negatives, so I reused the working solution until I got to X. But the solution got dirty and left crap on my negs. I went back to my initial regimen of distilled + photoflo.

I stopped squeegeeing also, because I would get occasional scratches. Also, because I'm reusing developers, stop, and fixer solutions, I got myself a 1 micron filtering bag to keep them clean.
 

Savage

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I wanted a film drying cabinet too but then like Michel, noticed most of my spots came from processing.
 
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