Holy Crap what a thrill...it worked! RA-4 in open tray test #1.

[RPC]

my productivity jumped when I started using the colorstar analyzer (few days ago)

Great, if it works that well. Unfortunately, there are not enough of them for everybody.

 

[bvy]

I guess I imagined the longer times all those years I used a drum. You should rinse the drum well, and if it and the end caps aren't dry, you can get streaking on the next print. You should always use a pre-wet and stop bath with a drum, for uniformity, not required with trays, adding more time. Why do all that pouring and heating of solutions? And you must load and unload the paper from the drum. Not a lot more time, but it all adds up. Some drums only take one size sheet of paper so small test prints are hard to do. With trays, easy. Consistency is easier at lower temperatures, great for the home as opposed a machine environment. I used drums for years and when I switched to trays at room temperature, my productivity jumped.

I would use a stop bath anyway. It helps maintain the pH of the blix thereby prolonging its usable life. The 8x10 Unicolor drum has slots for 5" paper (it will process four 4x5's). I pre-cut 8x10 paper down to 4x5 and make all of my small test prints on these. On that note, larger drums are also advantageous in that you can process multiple sheets without having to shuffle them around in trays. Talk about increasing productivity...

To inspire newcomers to this process it should be as easy, fast, and cheap as possible, and this is the case with trays.

That's what inspired me. My first session with trays was a disaster. Do what works for you. I appreciate that drums weren't your thing, but I still think they're great for newcomers.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Now I have to get off my ass and start doing something.

 

[MattKing]

I have sufficient numbers of drums that most of the drying is simply an air dry.
Four drums should be enough.

 

[rpavich]

Well, thanks to a generous member here and the purchase of a couple of drums myself, I'll have multiple drums and a Jobo CPE2 today. As the OP said, I've been tray processing for a couple of days just to get my feet wet and I also processed some in a jobo drum and a unicolor roller base. I have to say that I'm looking forward to the Jobo.

The tray processing is working but it's messy. I cannot see how folks find anything in the dark with tongs....I really can't. I ended up using my fingers to shuffle the prints from one bath to another.
I can also attest to the fact that the drums have to be dry Don't ask me how I found out.

It's still a thrill by the way, but I'm finding out how hard it is to get good color balance. I printed a picture from a negative that I've had of my son shipping out to Europe and when I had them scan**d and printed by a developing house the prints weren't that great..they definitely had a cast, very orange or at least more than I wished for. Now that I've tried printing them I can see why...seems like the only choice is jauntice or seasick...yellowish or greenish. Just when I thought I nailed it, I woke up this morning and said "darn! too much green!"

Looking forward to the Jobo to get my chems up to temp and speed the process up.

 

[Berri]

I can also attest to the fact that the drums have to be dry

Don't know what to say. I never dried my drum, never had a problem and been RA4 processing for years now

 

[RPC]

All it takes is a little drop of water in the drum or end caps to splash on to the paper when loaded and cause spotting or streaking, even if you use a prewet.
I never use tongs with trays, just my hands. Some use gloves, I don't, just rinse my hands after making the print and wash thoroughly after the session.

 

[Berri]

All it takes is a little drop of water in the drum or end caps to splash on to the paper when loaded and cause spotting or streaking, even if you use a prewet.
I never use tongs with trays, just my hands. Some use gloves, I don't, just rinse my hands after making the print and wash thoroughly after the session.

I rest the drum upside down after processing. When the next sheet of paper goes in is just little wet on the sides but the emulsion is facing inwards and no water ever goes on the surface, that's why I never had a streacking from that. I happend to have streakings when development was insufficient in volume, though. How do you dry your drum? with a clot or with a hair dryier?

 

[RPC]

They were dried with a dish towel but thank goodness I don't have to deal with it anymore. The problem was, solutions were poured in and out of the end caps, and you couldn't dry the insides of their basins, so any water still in them might splash around and fall into the drums. It wasn't a frequent problem but occasionally did happen. You could blow air from a hair dryer into them, but that's just more time and hassle. Everything got so much easier with trays.

 

[bvy]

I rest the drum upside down after processing. When the next sheet of paper goes in is just little wet on the sides but the emulsion is facing inwards and no water ever goes on the surface, that's why I never had a streacking from that.

Ditto all of that. I've not experienced this once -- not even on my test prints where I'm much less careful.

 

[RPC]

All I can say is that all the problems reported of spots and streaking always seem to be from people using drums or rotary processors, whether it be film or paper, from whatever the actual cause. I have experienced it, the OP apparently has already, and many others. Seldom if ever with tanks or trays. On the other hand, a few, as some here, don't dry the drum, don't use a prewet and don't use a stop bath and never have a problem. Go figure. Just lucky, I guess.

 

[bvy]

I would never load paper or film into a dripping wet empty drum. I certainly don't want beads of water running down a dry sheet of exposed paper before I have a chance to process it. But the effort required to dry them is being overstated, I think. The cap especially should be dry since it will initially be on top of the paper. How dry? A rinse followed by a rigorous shaking is all that I do.

And again, for small drums, just fill them up with water and load the paper directly into the filled up drum. Now you don't have to dry anything.

 

[EdSawyer]

I used cibachrome drums for years, and definitely dried and wash them between each print. I also used the pre-wet. That worked out fine and if you're quick with it it's not that slow. Especially at higher temps it's definitely faster than trays. Now, I use a Fujimoto CP 31 print processor, which is easily the best option if you can find an afford one.

 

[MattKing]

On the cibachrome drums, the light trap assembly pops out easily, so they are easy and quick to rinse and dry.

 

[Berri]

All I can say is that all the problems reported of spots and streaking always seem to be from people using drums or rotary processors, whether it be film or paper, from whatever the actual cause. I have experienced it, the OP apparently has already, and many others. Seldom if ever with tanks or trays. On the other hand, a few, as some here, don't dry the drum, don't use a prewet and don't use a stop bath and never have a problem. Go figure. Just lucky, I guess.

I wish I was this lucky in life. As said by others, I don't put the exposed paper inside a dripping wet drum, but I don't even bother too much of drying it with hairdrier or towel. Afterall even if one day I'd experience some streacking, it would be just matter of printing again the same photo, that's all, and that saves me time that would be wasted in drying the drum. I guess I'd dry it if many prints would come out with issue, but since I'm in the opposite situation I don't see why I should consider drying

 

[Wayne]

RA-4 Tongs= Nitrile gloves, 6.99 for a hundred at Harbor Freight.