Homebrew Ilfofix 2

My local camera store has stopped carrying Ilford Rapid Fixer, which has been my fixer-of-choice for RC paper.

Rather than switch to Ilford Hypam, I was thinking about buying a 5 lb bag of sodium thiosulphate online from Photographer’s Formulary and brewing my own “slow” fixer, as I don’t care too much about the extra minute it takes to work, and I don’t print often enough to justify buying a 5 liter bottle of Hypam.

Has anyone here ever used Ilfofix 2 back In the day when it was still in production? Was it any different/better than just a “plain hypo” fixer? What are the extra ingredients? Assuming that I’ll be making up 500 mL of paper fixer at a time, how many grams of sodium thiosulphate powder do I need to dissolve to make a solution that fixes RC paper in 2 minutes just like Ilfofix 2 does? It’s been a while since I took General Chemistry and I don’t want to screw this up.

Ansel's simple "plain hypo" fixer was just sodium thiosulfate (240 g/L, as I recall) and some sodium sulfite to preferentially oxidize for long enough to use up the capacity of the thiosulfate (40 g/L, maybe?). Easy to find, it's in the back of The Negative in one of the appendices.

Most of the old "non-rapid" fixers would have added some acetic acid to that -- probably about half what you'd use for stop bath -- and a little something as a hardener (often shipped as a separate component, for optional inclusion). The hardener was often formalin or a related compound, and I wouldn't recommend it in a darkroom without aggressive ventilation.

Also have a look at the TF-2 recipe in Darkroom Cookbook. I'm using that as an alternative to Formulary TF-4 in applications where I don't need "rapid" results.

I mixed Kodak F-6 odorless fixer for some years before switching to rapid fixers. It's hardening, so you'd need to wash longer. TF-2 looks interesting. There are lots of formulae for fixers, both conventional and rapid here and other places. Plain hypo fixers tend to have a short working lifespan; most sodium-thiosulfate-based fixers have acid(s) and sodium sulfite as a preservative. Typical formulae also usually include a hardener such as potassium alum. Keep in mind that conventional fixers may not work well with newer, tabular-grain films. For papers, they should be just fine.

But, what's wrong with Hypam? I use Ilford Rapid Fixer and Hypam (without hardener) interchangeably with good results. Where I am, Hypam is often the cheaper of the two.

Best,

Doremus

Well, one advantage of mixing your own fixer is cost. I can buy sodium thiosulfate at the local hardware store (as chlorine reducer for swimming pools and spas) for $16 for a 5 lb bucket (makes around 10L at 240 g/L), and less per pound in bigger buckets (biggest one they carry is 40 lb, I think). Sodium sulfite is about the same price on Amazon, and of course you use a good bit less of that. Amazon also has 75% acetic acid (dilute 1:50 or more with your hypo solution) for $18 a quart, as I recall.

As noted, hypo doesn't work as well as rapid fixer for tabular grain, but if you use it as as two-bath it works fine -- give the Tmax or Delta or Acros twice the fixing time you'd give normal film, and divide that between two baths. Keep track of usage, and at half capacity (16 films per liter is what I recall, but I'm not at home) you discard bath B and replace it with Bath A, and mix fresh Bath A.

I found this formula for "IF-2" under the Resources -> Recipes -> Fixers page on Photrio:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/resources/ilford-if-2-acid-hypo-fixer.250/

It recommends 500 g of sodium thiosulphate crystals per 1000 ml. But it doesn't specify whether that's anhydrous sodium thiosulphate powder, or sodium thiosulphate pentahydrate crystals. Any chemists or chemical engineers here that might know? The recipe also calls for potassium metabisulphite as the acidifier, rather than acetic acid or sodium sulfite.

Doremus Scudder said:

But, what's wrong with Hypam?

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They sell a 5 liter bottle of Hypam, but if I'm going to buy chemicals in bulk I'd rather brew my own fixer. I already have all of the labwear & equipment and I'm not using it.

waffles said:

I found this formula for "IF-2" under the Resources -> Recipes -> Fixers page on Photrio:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/resources/ilford-if-2-acid-hypo-fixer.250/

It recommends 500 g of sodium thiosulphate crystals per 1000 ml. But it doesn't specify whether that's anhydrous sodium thiosulphate powder, or sodium thiosulphate pentahydrate crystals. Any chemists or chemical engineers here that might know? The recipe also calls for potassium metabisulphite as the acidifier, rather than acetic acid or sodium sulfite.

Click to expand...

If they call it "crystals" it's most likely the common pentahydrate, with the slippery monoclinic prism crystals. That's the common form, and anhydrous is relatively uncommon (and you wouldn't normally call it "crystals", it's a fine white powder if it's still genuinely dry).