Keeping a lid on it

[Curt]

In the last developing session I used nearly all of my tanks, lids and caps. Today I went to the darkroom and picked out a single tank to develop a 120 roll and randomly picked up a lid and cap. All went fine until I was finished developing, water stop and was going to pour out the water and put in the fix. I picked the tank up by the top and the plastic lid came right off. It was my surprise because I just finished agitation in the previous steps without a problem and have been doing it the same way for years. As the lid came off by reflex I jammed it back on. I figured I might as well fix and see if the film was exposed. It turned out just fine but now I have to look the the tanks and lids to see what the problem is. I have metal lids for some thanks and the lids stick and most of the caps don't stay on. Maybe back to my Patterson tanks.

Has anyone had this happen and does anyone have a solution to the loose plastic cap problem?

 

[craigclu]

A habit that I learned at work and applied in my darkroom was to wrap a band of 3M 33+ electrical tape around the lip edge of tanks. I quit using my plastic-lid tanks quite some time ago and gradually replaced with full metal versions. I continue the tape habit with them, too.

The specific tape mentioned is especially pliable and soft which makes it easy to form around uneven surfaces. It also comes off cleanly with no residue. The habit at work is from wrapping sieves that are used for separating very fine diamond powders into specific size ranges, the tape sealing the joints between the sieves where the fine dust could escape and contaminate equipment. Some of my all-metal tanks have a slow-seep problem at the lid edge and I'm also paranoid about a lid incident occurring as you had happen so the tape adds some piece of mind.