Raghu,
The injection goes into a measure sodium carbonate solution that is already prepared, so this takes about 15 seconds, and is much much much more convenient, especially will very small batches that i need for ortho litho work in the darkroom. I realise this may not work, but the first step is feasibility.
This morning I was able to prepare a much better developer solution. I started by adding the required metol to the glycerol at room temperature and gradually raising the temperature while stirring. Getting the metol into solution is the limiting factor with this brew of mine, so it made sense to me early this morning to do that first at minimum temperature, and go from there. I gradually raised the temperature using my small microwave up to 160 deg. F while stirring. At this point, the metol is barely in solution. I did not want to raise the temp any more.
Next, I added the ascorbic acid gradually while stirring. The temperature had dropped to about 130 deg. F, and the solution was very cloudy. I continued gradually heating and stirring until everything was dissolved. This took about 180 deg. F. When the solution cools to room temp, I will adjust the level by adding a small amount. It was much harder dissolving the ascorbic acid this time, but I saw no sign of a chemical reaction as I did the first time when I started with dissolving ascorbic acid, then adding the metol to that.
The solubility of metol in glycerol is surprisingly low, on the order of propylene glycol, or about 1% as supersaturated solution at 160 df. I wasn't able to find any data on that solubility, only vague references from Patrick Gainer on these forums back in the day. I paraphrase him on one time he was writing about dissolving 10g ascorbic acid and 10g metol in, I believe, 240ml of glycerol. He remarked often about using glycerol interchangeably with propylene glycol in his experimenting. I also recall another board user who was able to get 2g metol and 10g ascorbic acid into 100ml propylene glycol, but there was lots of confusion on how this was done.
Based on my experimenting, I don't think glycerol is better than propylene glycol for what I'm trying to do. They are likely both about the same. Getting metol in is definitely the problem. Later today, I will do a snip test of this developer on a short piece of film generously exposed to daylight and measure the Dmax. I was getting 0.84 the other day on my first try and I had well over 3.00 on my first test of the water version of the original Gainer MC developer. If it looks good, I can do an actual in camera test. However, this whole exercise appears to be on the edge of failure.
I am having fun as I think about ordering some propylene glycol.
The injection goes into a measure sodium carbonate solution that is already prepared, so this takes about 15 seconds, and is much much much more convenient, especially will very small batches that i need for ortho litho work in the darkroom. I realise this may not work, but the first step is feasibility.
This morning I was able to prepare a much better developer solution. I started by adding the required metol to the glycerol at room temperature and gradually raising the temperature while stirring. Getting the metol into solution is the limiting factor with this brew of mine, so it made sense to me early this morning to do that first at minimum temperature, and go from there. I gradually raised the temperature using my small microwave up to 160 deg. F while stirring. At this point, the metol is barely in solution. I did not want to raise the temp any more.
Next, I added the ascorbic acid gradually while stirring. The temperature had dropped to about 130 deg. F, and the solution was very cloudy. I continued gradually heating and stirring until everything was dissolved. This took about 180 deg. F. When the solution cools to room temp, I will adjust the level by adding a small amount. It was much harder dissolving the ascorbic acid this time, but I saw no sign of a chemical reaction as I did the first time when I started with dissolving ascorbic acid, then adding the metol to that.
The solubility of metol in glycerol is surprisingly low, on the order of propylene glycol, or about 1% as supersaturated solution at 160 df. I wasn't able to find any data on that solubility, only vague references from Patrick Gainer on these forums back in the day. I paraphrase him on one time he was writing about dissolving 10g ascorbic acid and 10g metol in, I believe, 240ml of glycerol. He remarked often about using glycerol interchangeably with propylene glycol in his experimenting. I also recall another board user who was able to get 2g metol and 10g ascorbic acid into 100ml propylene glycol, but there was lots of confusion on how this was done.
Based on my experimenting, I don't think glycerol is better than propylene glycol for what I'm trying to do. They are likely both about the same. Getting metol in is definitely the problem. Later today, I will do a snip test of this developer on a short piece of film generously exposed to daylight and measure the Dmax. I was getting 0.84 the other day on my first try and I had well over 3.00 on my first test of the water version of the original Gainer MC developer. If it looks good, I can do an actual in camera test. However, this whole exercise appears to be on the edge of failure.
I am having fun as I think about ordering some propylene glycol.
) It helped to have topped it up to 150ml with glycerol. Finally I had 200ml of a clear, very lighly amber syrup.
