Homebrew developers in the middle of the CoViD-19 pandemic

[Máx Arnold]

An Update:
Today I went to the pharmacy and got some effervescent vitamin C tablets.
I had left some RudeRodinal (That's how I like to call it) on the tray for about one week, and it had turned brown like coca cola. I tested it with a heavily fogged paper strip and a faint grey developed out. Just for the record.

I made another batch of RudeRodinal after dumping the one that I had, but I added one tablet of vitamin C.
(Bear in mind that this is for paper, not film. It certainly is too harsh for film and I can't assure nor test times nor temperatures for any kind of film.)

Rude Rodinal recipe:
- Acetaminophen tablets equivalent for 2.5g of acetaminophen (Ex. 2 and 1/2 1g tablets)
- 15.7 g Lye pellets (Like in solid alkaline drain cleaner)
Add the tablets first to 50ml room temperature tap water, stir until they start to disintegrate.
Add the soda. Stir well. Wait 15 minutes for the hydrolyzation of acetaminophen to p-aminophenol to start. Leave it on a bottle with stopper on the window during that time. it'll turn red. don't worry. it's perfectly fine. it's so that you know the reaction happened.
Passed that time, add 1 tablet of 2g (2000mg, 2x 1000mg, 4x 500mg or the equivalent of 2g ascorbic acid.) to the above solution. Let the tablet disintegrate stirring constantly. (I cap the bottle and shake it vigorously pointing to open space. It's a strong lye solution, don't point to eyes, animals or other people)
Once the vitamin c is added the red colour will disappear, I think meaning the p-aminophenol has been "protected" by the now sodium ascorbate.

I didn't dilute it to have this results:


Notice that I'm exposing 4x4 cm pieces of paper, so 50ml of developer is enough for submerging the tiny negative and developing correctly. I might need to scale tthe formula for making more developer, but I'm currently testing how much this would last, so I'm not going to do that.

What I'm impressed by is the great density I'm getting in the exposed areas and the awesome contrast.
(I've watched the Borut Peterlin's video on paper negatives on YouTube, and he said this is too contrasty for a negative, but since I'm printing using the cyanotype process, dense negatives are a must.)

I'm very thankful for the help received in this forum. Long life PHOTRIO & APUG! (To which one I arrived late)

Max.

 

[Máx Arnold]

Always when investigating a forgotten process forum entries are of great interest. I post this for the people that may be looking for an updated formula, since my last post described an experimental one.

RR-C (Rude Rodinal - vitamin C) Paper developer.
- Equivalent of 2g acetaminophen
- Equivalent of 2g Ascorbic Acid
- 16g Sodium Hydroxide drain cleaner (Lye) pellets
Into 50ml of water, tap, room temperature.
Wait 15minutes and agitate strongly for the tablets to disintegrate. (Fillers aren't a real issue, but if possible, strain through a coffee filter)
Once time has passed, dilute with more tap water to make 237ml of developer.
Without sulphite the developer will stay healthy for up to 3 hours on a tray.
I didn't find ascorbate to have any effect on preserving p-aminophenol.
If I somehow get sulphite I'll test with it. For now this is what I have.

For scaling have into account:
- Use same amount of acetaminophen and vitamin c
- multiply by 8 the amount of lye pellets. Might need to adjust if using pure NaOH
- the initial amount of water doesn't really matter, but it's a lye concentrate so that the hydrolyzation happens.
The final dilution is, to me, unknown. I don't know how to calculate it. I'm sorry.

- Max.

 

[Donald Qualls]

@Máx Arnold I just (a few days ago) ordered 5 lb (2+ kg) of sulfite from an Amazon seller for about US$25. If Amazon has fulfillment in Argentina, you may be able to do the same at reasonable cost. The offered material is technical grade, as I recall, but that's fine for photography.

Drain opening lye sold in pellets or beads is pretty pure, and as long as the beads haven't clumped can be treated as anhydrous -- it turns out that this, like many chemicals, is manufactured by methods that make a product with very good purity, equivalent to technical grade, and there's no costs saving in selling a lower grade. Further, to be used according to instructions on the can, it has to be a dry product.