Jobo Reels--how do I use the red tabs?

[mattk]

I have some jobo reels and I understand they can hold two rolls of 120 film. Does that involve loading them like steel reels? What do the red clips do--I imagine they hold the end of one strip of film.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[nworth]

The red tab is used to separate the two rolls of film on the reel. First, pop up the tab. Then load the first roll, making sure that it is pushed all the way to the core of the reel. Then push down the red tab and load the second roll. The second roll will stop at the red tab, and the tab will keep the rolls separated during processing.

 

[Martin Aislabie]

The Red Tab is suposed to seperate the 2 rolls of film from sitting on top of each other.
I never do this with must "have shots" - just in case.
Load the reel, wind the 120 film in as far as it will go.
Push down the Red Tab - and back the loaded film out of the reel.
The Red Tab should stop it from coming out very far.
If it does, then you can wind the film back to the centre of the spiral and wind on the 2nd 120 roll
Wind the 2nd 120 roll only on as far as you need.
If the Red Tab doesn't stop the first film from backing out of the spiral - leave it - don't wind the 2nd roll onto the reel - they may must overlap.
I find the trickiest part is splitting the spiral at the end to retreive the rolls after the final wash.
The inner roll can fall over and scratch the our rolls emulsion.
I use the Ted Tab feature only occasionaly - I didn't find it worth the extra hassle.
However, you might have more luck
Martin

 

[haris]

Load first film to the end of the reel (well, rotate reel sides 100 times and first film is SURELY loaded to the end), then press red tab to the end, and load second film, but only till it is just load its back end, don't load it too far.

As Martin said, I would NEVER use that method with important films, I have had situations when last frame of first film, and first frame of second film overlapped. It happened to me 3 or 4 times. Then again, I also had situations with NO problems at all.

 

[ic-racer]

The little tab works great for me for last 10 years. I almost never do a single 120 on a reel; always two. Same with my 16mm reels, I usually put two 18 exposure films on a single reel and use the little red tab.

Always make sure the first roll is all the way or, obviously, the rolls will overlap.

How do you know? When you have the first rool loaded, there will be some 'springyness' to the end of the rool; it will be mobile in-and-out of the reel. If you inadvertently put the red pin down ON the edge of the first roll, you wedge the film in place and that mobility of the end of the film will be lost. This is easy to feel for. If this happens, just release the red pin and wind the first roll ALL the way on the reel this time. If the first roll won't go ALL the way in the reel...well, that is a 'reel loading' problem and you have to use all the little tricks to get it to go all the way on.

 

[Nick Zentena]

When I do single rolls the single roll goes on the outside of the reel. That lets me use less chemicals. Not a big deal for B&W but can be for colour. If the tab didn't work the film would drift to the centre and not get any chemicals. So that's a second use for the tabs.