House-hold cleaning to clean negatives??

[naaldvoerder]

What house-hold liquids or cleaning agents do you use to clean negatives and negative carriers? Thanks in advance,

Jaap Jan

 

[Konical]

Good Afternoon, Jaap,

I use Windex (common brand of glass cleaner here in the U. S.) to clean the plate of glass used to flatten my negatives for contact printing. I keep my enlarging lenses clean; on the extremely rare occasion when one needs a little help, I use Kodak Lens Cleaner or some similar product. I have occasionally used Kodak Film Cleaner (yes, I still have some) for cleaning negatives. The best policy, however, is to be careful enough with negatives so that no cleaning at all is necessary, just a quick swipe with an anti-static brush. Anything which doesn't leave a residue should be fine for negative carriers. Generally, if you need common household cleaners on your equipment, you're probably running a very messy darkroom. Ajax cleanser on condenser lenses, anyone?

Konical

 

[vet173]

I think if I were to the point where I would be willing to use household cleaners on my negs, I would just put them in the dishwasher.

 

[reellis67]

Ammonia 28% - 5ml
distilled water - 95ml
Isopropyl alcohol - to make 1 liter

A formula for film cleaner I found in an old book

- Randy

 

[naaldvoerder]

Thanks Randy,

And you guessed right, I'm not a cleaning enthousiast...

 

[raucousimages]

I used Lime Away to clean BAD hard water deposits from some negs that had to be salvaged. It worked, there was some damage but I could not tell if it was from the cleaner or the lime deposit. At least it gave me a printable neg but I never want to do it again. I use Everclear to clean negs. It has no oils or other chemical residue in it, just ethyl alcohol and water. I don't like using anything other than air and a brush unless it can't be helped.

To clean glass and glassless neg holders I use alcohol, windex or acetone if it has tape residue.

 

[raucousimages]

Ajax on a condenser is fine but now you have a weird diffusion enlarger.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

<snip>I use Everclear to clean negs.</snip>

I think that's about all Everclear is good for.

 

[raucousimages]

Everclear is used in wet plate processes, thats why it is in my darkroom. (tiniype, ambrotype) It is 95% ethyl alcohol 5% water. No oils or other chemicals used to keep you from drinking it or from the manufacturing process. Some industrial alcohol compounds are from the petroleum industry or actually waste products from other chemical processes and are not suitable for photography, it will ruin the emulsion of a tintype. Ethnol plants make alcohol that is 99.999% pure but must ad 10% gasoline before it leaves the plant. I would love to have some of that so I don't have the 5% water to deal with but if alcohol that pure ever got onto a college campus it would kill a lot of kids.

It also works in stoves on boats and some older backpacking stoves, you can put the fire out with water. You don't want a gas stove on a boat, the fire spreads with water.

I just can't see drinking something that has no flavor, no nutrition, will dissolve glue, run my car and cook my dinner.

 

[nworth]

It's amazing what people get away with. I wonder how these home grown concoctions affect the stability of the negatives. Water is the safest and often the most effective cleaning agent for black and white negatives. Where there is grease or oil, dilute alcohol followed by a water rinse will usually do. Special film cleaner solutions are available on the market. They are mostly like diluted alcohol, but some may have some special advantages. Heavy deposits (like calcium sludge) may require special treatment with dilute acid or something like EDTA and possibly a surfacant. There is always a big chance of scratching the negative in this situation. In any case, it is wise to thorougly wash and reharden the negative after such radical treatment. (E-6 stabilizer makes a good hardener and wetting agent treatment.)

 

[markbb]

The traditional method of cleaning windows is with a weak dilution of vinegar. I use a teapsoon of Acetic acid in a jug (about 3/4 litre) of water to clean dust etc from the carrier etc on my enlarger. I use lint free-wipes and then follow-up with a rinse & wipe in plain tap water.