Keep your chemical fresh

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Here's a neat little storage device made for wine that might work for developers.

http://www.rei.com/product/781835/p...wine-preservation-system-27-fl-oz#video-inner

It's only $10 each.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Just label it well as developer in case drunk Uncle Leroy finds it on Thanksgiving and decides to have a swig.

 

[cliveh]

A cheaper alternative and not my idea, but picked up from a different forum, is to take an empty wine bag from a wine box and with a flat bladed knife, remove the tap, wash it out, fill with developer and replace tap. If you also reverse the box, it is easier to label it and no mix up, thinking it may be wine. If you squeeze bag when dispensing, it’s an oxidation proof method and you even get a spring loaded tap to stop you wasting any. Also, you get to drink the wine first.

 

[bluejeh]

Empty Wine Bag & Box for storing chemicals

an empty wine bag/wine box

We have used wine bags,boxes for chemicals, however I believe there are some chemicals which should be stored in the fully plastic wine bags, i.e., not the ones with the metallic plastic. Does anyone have experience with this? Which chemicals for fully plastic, and which are ok with the metallic plastic? Thanks.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I am pretty sure the metallized plastics are a laminated product, and none of the metal foil is in contact with the liquids.

The foil is in the sandwich to cut the air permiability rate lower than that which is available in a given thickness of plastic alone.

 

[Tony-S]

A cheaper alternative and not my idea, but picked up from a different forum, is to take an empty wine bag from a wine box and with a flat bladed knife, remove the tap, wash it out, fill with developer and replace tap. If you also reverse the box, it is easier to label it and no mix up, thinking it may be wine. If you squeeze bag when dispensing, it’s an oxidation proof method and you even get a spring loaded tap to stop you wasting any.

How do you warm the developer to 102F?

 

[hrst]

How do you warm the developer to 102F?

Take the amount you need for your one-shot process to a separate bottle to be placed in a water bath, no?

For re-use or replenished processes, wine box is not very handy, but for one-shot processes, the smaller the amount used, the handier it gets. We use a wine box at our club darkroom to store stock Dektol to be diluted and used one-shot for every printing session. It kept in a perfect condition for more than a year, before it ran out.

 

[polyglot]

If you don't feel like washing out wine bladders you can buy 10L water cubes from the supermarket for a couple $ and use them to make up and store developers. My Xtol lives in one.

 

[Tony-S]

Take the amount you need for your one-shot process to a separate bottle to be placed in a water bath, no? For re-use or replenished processes, wine box is not very handy, but for one-shot processes, the smaller the amount used, the handier it gets.

Yeah, that's the problem. Presumably the OP was talking about color developers (C-41 and E-6) since this is the color processing forum, which are reused. For B&W I use a wine bladder for my XTOL, but I discard it after use. I don't think a wine bladder is good for color processing.

 

[hrst]

Yeah, that's the problem. Presumably the OP was talking about color developers (C-41 and E-6) since this is the color processing forum, which are reused.

Ah, I mostly use one-shot procedures for color. I thought this would be the procedure many choose, because color development is usually done in a rotary processor which is economical even in one-shot process. On commercial level, the processes are replenished, and on a small scale, usually used one-shot, at least for developer. Reusing with increased times is an alternative for replenishing for maximum economy, especially if traditional inversion tanks are used.

Anyhow, processing a few films at a time, I tend to use at least 500 ml of developer. For this amount, I don't find 3-liter wine box approach practical enough.

 

[tnabbott]

Ah, I mostly use one-shot procedures for color. I thought this would be the procedure many choose, because color development is usually done in a rotary processor which is economical even in one-shot process.

I got this when you first posted. I also use color developers one-shot, so it made sense to me..