Formulary TF4 Fixer

I set up a tank line for a run of 5x7's, using TF4 as the fixer and although it says that a stop bath and hypo clear can be eliminated I continued to use them as I always do. Does the elimination of a stop bath have any effect on the life of the fixer? I would think so but I'm not sure what decrease it has.

As a second note I ran out of TF4 at the end but have a box of Kodak Rapid Fix to make 5 gallons. I know that Ron says he mixes it up as film fixer and then dilutes 1:1 for paper but can it be mixed in a 5 gallon bucket then put in my 2 1/2 gallon container with floating lid and spigot and the rest in one gallon containers? I was thinking of buying a 5 gallon container with the floating lid and spigot but I'm not sure I need to be buying chemicals to make 5 gallons.

Maybe I need a larger darkroom. I am also thinking of going back to the TF4 and this time mixing it with distilled water. What I would like is stainless steel containers with spigots that don't leak. Since I'm going to bed at 3 am I'll probably be dreaming of a lab with huge stainless steel tanks.


Curt

I mix up TF-4 in a 5-gallon container with a floating lid and a spigot. TF-4 lasts a long time, so as long as I've got room for the tank, I don't see why not. The spigot doesn't leak, but I suppose that if I had a problem with it at some point, it wouldn't be too hard to replace it with something more robust. I don't recall what brand the tank is, but B&H only sells one kind.

If you want a metal container with a spigot, I'd look for one of those big coffee percolators that everyone seems to have and can't give away.

If you use an acid stop with an alkaline fixer, the stop weakens the fixer rather than protecting it, as it would with an acid fixer. That said, with a tank line at room temperature, I'm often getting very short development times using Acufine, so I recently decided just for the tank line to try a bisulfite stop (10g sodium bisulfite or metabisulfite/l), which has a pH of about 4.2. TF-4 has a pH of about 8. I should know in a few weeks whether this is a good idea.

TF-4 is formulated to be used with or without a stop bath. That is why it has sediment on the bottom, it is due to the huge buffer capacity of the fix. It will smell a bit more of ammonia if you do not use a stop and if you run a heavy load through it.

I mix KRLF or TF-4 and just keep them in jugs in the lab. Works fine for me. The TF-4 lasts in a jug for at least a year, if not more, but the KRLF goes bad in about 6 months as the concentrate or the working solution. This is due to pH more than anything else.

PE

Thanks David and Ron, I'm going to mix the KRLF and put it in my 2 1/2 gallon container and the rest in jugs, then I'm going to make the switch to TF-4 that I'm going to put in a 5 gallon container with a floating lid. If I can't use 5 gallons of fix in 6 to 12 months then I'm not working hard enough. The poor economy is a great reason to stay at home and print. As Robert Frost should have said, "I have stacks of negatives to print before I sleep".

Curt

Photo Engineer said:

TF-4 is formulated to be used with or without a stop bath. That is why it has sediment on the bottom, it is due to the huge buffer capacity of the fix. It will smell a bit more of ammonia if you do not use a stop and if you run a heavy load through it.

I mix KRLF or TF-4 and just keep them in jugs in the lab. Works fine for me. The TF-4 lasts in a jug for at least a year, if not more, but the KRLF goes bad in about 6 months as the concentrate or the working solution. This is due to pH more than anything else.

PE

Click to expand...

I bought a gallon jug of this last year and noticed the sludge on the bottom of the jug. I assumed it needed to be mixed into the liquid and so I shook the jug before pouring out the amount I needed (I diluted a little at a time as needed since my volume of fixer use isn't enough to mix it all at once). Was that the right thing to do or should i have let the sludge stay in the jug un-mixed into the concentrate? It seemed to work fine.

Ideally, you should mix the whole jug at once, and if you can't use a gallon of the concentrate, then buy the smaller bottles.

chriscrawfordphoto said:

I bought a gallon jug of this last year and noticed the sludge on the bottom of the jug. I assumed it needed to be mixed into the liquid and so I shook the jug before pouring out the amount I needed (I diluted a little at a time as needed since my volume of fixer use isn't enough to mix it all at once). Was that the right thing to do or should i have let the sludge stay in the jug un-mixed into the concentrate? It seemed to work fine.

Click to expand...

Yes, always shake well before mixing to get all of the precipitate back into suspension.

- Randy

Randy & David,

Thanks for the info. I'm glad I was doing it right.