Got myself my first tank!

Michel Hardy-Vallée · May 31, 2005

This weekend I've been to my parents and talked photo with my father at the expense of everyone else's patience, but he gave me an old Brooks stainless steel tank with reel, for 120. We've tried it over the weekend, on APX100 and Rodinal 1+25, and I just love the steel reel, finding it surprisingly easy to load--I've only used Paterson before.

Now the big question: I just bought a 35mm reel to use with it, but as I'm a cheapskate I didn't bother buying two right now. So how the hell am I going to prevent the single reel from moving constantly in the 120 tank?

dancqu · Jun 1, 2005

mhv said:
So how the hell am I going to prevent the single
reel from moving constantly in the 120 tank?

I don't worry about it wiith the one reel of 120 I process
in my 2 reel 120 tank. One, two, or three inversions then
let it sit one, two, or three minutes.

The greater solution volume will give you the chance to
work with the more dilute compensating developers. Dan

rogueish · Jun 1, 2005

See if you have something plastic or stainless steel around the same length req'd laying around the house.
Or you could break out the wallet and get another one anyway. I mean they are not that expensive and you could process 2 rolls together. You'll recoup the $ on dev/stop/fix chems in the long run. (yea right, but it's what I tell myself )

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Jun 1, 2005

dancqu said:
I don't worry about it wiith the one reel of 120 I process
in my 2 reel 120 tank. One, two, or three inversions then
let it sit one, two, or three minutes.

The greater solution volume will give you the chance to
work with the more dilute compensating developers. Dan

Does the extra movement of the reel inside the liquid should cause any concern in terms of negative contrast? I.e. more agitation--more contrast?

I was just thinking about using a big magnet at the bottom to hold everything together.

titrisol · Jun 1, 2005

Not really, it'll actually help with agitation and you'll have to adjust your processing/exposures for this. Just consider it part of your processing.
I don;t think a magnet will help very much, SS is not very magnetic

mhv said:
Does the extra movement of the reel inside the liquid should cause any concern in terms of negative contrast? I.e. more agitation--more contrast?

I was just thinking about using a big magnet at the bottom to hold everything together.

rbarker · Jun 1, 2005

With the single reel sliding back and forth along with the developer, you could get surge streaks around the sprocket holes, or effectively less aggitation (due to the film moving with the developer), or something in between these extremes. But, the effect is likely to be inconsistent between rolls.

Get the second reel, put the empty one on top, fill the tank, and your consistency will improve.

For 35mm reels, I strongly recommend the Hewes reels, which have cleats to grab the sprocket holes, rather than the center clip. They make loading far easier.

Lee L · Jun 1, 2005

I'm with rbarker on this one. Cut a piece of PVC pipe or buy and cut a coupling to slip over the center rod and hold the reel in place or buy a second reel. I was also going to recommend the Hewes reels both in 35 and 120, available from Calumet. Not cheap, but load better than others and are heavier duty, and don't bend and become hard to load. I have several reels abused by former owners that are difficult to load because of slight bends.

Lee

Claire Senft · Jun 1, 2005

Put your plastic reel on top of it.

eric · Jun 1, 2005

mhv said:
Now the big question: I just bought a 35mm reel to use with it, but as I'm a cheapskate I didn't bother buying two right now. So how the hell am I going to prevent the single reel from moving constantly in the 120 tank?

Put marbles on the bottom? Rocks? Old film canisters?

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Jun 1, 2005

Lee L said:
I'm with rbarker on this one. Cut a piece of PVC pipe or buy and cut a coupling to slip over the center rod and hold the reel in place or buy a second reel. I was also going to recommend the Hewes reels both in 35 and 120, available from Calumet. Not cheap, but load better than others and are heavier duty, and don't bend and become hard to load. I have several reels abused by former owners that are difficult to load because of slight bends.

Lee

Sound idea, I'll see if it ends up cheaper than buying another reel, otherwise I guess I'll just have to wait until my pocket change gets higher.

dancqu · Jun 1, 2005

mhv said:
I guess I'll just have to wait until my pocket change gets higher.

You worry too much about the wrong 'something ?'. You've solution
to cover the reel we assume. So what's the problem? If inversion
is your choice for agitation then the reel sits at bottom 90 + %
of the time.

I've dropped processing one reel in a one reel tank and have gone
to an oversize tank. Looking back I can see that I was not getting
much agitation at all; a wee bit of slipping back and forth. Be
forceful. Avoid laminar flow streaking. Churn that soup. Dan

Donald Qualls · Jun 1, 2005

mhv said:
Sound idea, I'll see if it ends up cheaper than buying another reel, otherwise I guess I'll just have to wait until my pocket change gets higher.

It'll certainly be cheaper. You can get a 3" PVC union, which should just nicely fit inside the tank (take the tank along to check, please!) for under $3. Cut off the needed length (1 3/8") and you're ready to go.

Got myself my first tank!

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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Got myself my first tank!

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