Ebay JOBO Duolab LABORTECHNIK 4055 small auto film processor

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https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JOBO-Du...-auto-film-processor-UNUSED-RARE/202279643515

 

[mshchem]

I have one of these great little units. The 4 slot tanks at the rear will hold an 8x10 film hanger. My temperature stays dead on. I have a big CPP2 with a lift and all kind of tanks. For small volume, hobbyist, these work great. The cog is unique to the Duolab, the little bottles screw right on the tank. The slot tanks can be used to hold 2 8x10 hangers at a time . The cogs are hard to find. For a couple rolls at a time ,works great.
Mike

 

[Adrian Bacon]

I have one of these. They’re great. I’d love to pick up another one up, but AUS with no shipping is a bit of a stretch.

 

[twelvetone12]

I was looking at these units too, but I could not find any info on the 'net. How does it work? is the rotation automatic?

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

I see it's located in Hipsterville (North Fitzroy), where I've just come from today on an E6 errand.
A most interesting trinket for consideration...

 

[Adrian Bacon]

I was looking at these units too, but I could not find any info on the 'net. How does it work? is the rotation automatic?

It rotates continuously in one direction. There are 2 dials on the top, 1 for temperature selection and one for where to put the heat and rotation.

It uses a special cog that is different from the cogs used on other jobos.

To use it, put water in the tempering tank, distilled water in the heating tank, turn the second dial to the 2 position and the temperature to 24C (for black and white). Put your dev/stop/fix in the bottles and wait until the dev is up to temp. If you want to preheat the film tank, put it on and turn the second dial to the 3 position. It’ll rotate the tank in the tempering bath. When you’re ready to dev, unscrew the cap to the dev bottle, grab the film tank out of the tempering bath and screw it on to the dev bottle. Invert to dump the dev into the film tank and put it back into the tempering bath with the second dial still set to 3 and start the clock.

10 seconds before time is up, grab the film tank and invert it so the dev dumps back out into dev the bottle, put the whole thing back in the dev bottle slot, unscrew it from the bottle and go to the next bottle and repeat.

When you’re done, put the second dial back to the 2 position and the temperature dial to the off position. Then dump/wash the bottles and the unit.

Very simple, very easy, and it works flawlessly. I actually prefer it over the jobos with the lift system.

 

[Down Under]

Adrian Bacon's (#6) description is spot-on.

In my time as a struggling architect (yes, many architects do struggle) I could never afford one of the more 'upmarket' (= expensive) Jobo units which either cost too much or with the very few I saw that were affordable, were worn-out from overuse by prolabs and high-volume photographers.

In about 2003, apparently Jobo had discontinued production of the Duolab. A local (Melbourne) retail store, Vanbar's, got their hands on a dozen or so of these at, IFRC, about A$300 or a little more for each unit. I found them purely by good luck and blew out my credit card budget to buy two.

All my film results (B&W, color negative, slides) improved, due to the somewhat limited (in only one direction and one speed) rotation and the excellent temperature control systems. One unit is used every few weeks for up to 12 rolls at a time and the other is taken out now and then to be put through its paces, as I bought it for a friend who decided not to buy it so I kept it as a spare. Neither has ever needed repair.

According to Jobo, the designers had the idea for the temperature control system from watching an electric coffee maker! Whether true or not, the Duoab is proof that the good old tried-and-true principle of KISS produces 95% as good results as much more expensive systems.

The temperatures in the two units have stayed remarkably consistent within one-third of a a degree Celsius, I test them regularly with a Kodak lab thermometer to verify their accuracy. Some minor (= limited) adjustments can be made with a +/- screw under the speed knob.

My Duolab fits on my kitchen counter in a small space next to the sink. In 15 years of use, neither the unit nor the tank has ever leaked.

Accessories (mostly different tanks, lids and tank extension units) were plentiful and reasonably priced in those good old days, so I bought many of these one by one as I could afford them. Nowadays they are few and far between on the market, so other than an occasional 1520 tank on Ebay, you may find it difficult to get things and bits for the Duolab.

The Jobo booklet provided with the unit is very detailed. I learned from it (and the Duolab pages in the Jobo web site, which I believe are still available in the archives) that some developers don't work well with constant rotation, to reduce B&W development times by 10%-20% for the film results I prefer, and to change first development times with some Fuji slide films.

Whoever gets this little unit will be buying a real bargain. If the seller had offered to ship, I would be bidding to make this Duolab part of a trio.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

Same here. If the seller were shipping, I’d be jumping all over that thing.

You see them pop up on eBay here in the US a few times a year and they typically go for $500-$600 with varying bits and pieces included.

I recently acquired a 2500 series 1 tank and made fit to the 2830 extender tube to make the 2834 paper tube that some duo jabs come with. I also got catlabs cl81 kit and 2509 reel so I can develop 4x5 and 8x10 sheet film along with paper up to 11x14.

For the time I’ve had my duolab so far, I run at least 1 roll/sheet through it 5-7 days a week. It has been flawless. A real undiscovered gem.