Kodak Fixer question

[vic vic]

hi,
using the kodak fixers for the first time. usually use ilford or tetenal, but i see in israel these are not supplied at the moment.

1. the one gallon powder Fixer seems to be a working solution once it is mixed with water. i dont see any other instructions on the package.
what is the shelf life of the solution?
can i mix only 1/2, or 1/3 of the powder it each time (with 1/2 or 1/3 gallon)?
how would u recommend to store the mixed solution? i have a some black photo-bottles, but need them for d-76, and there were no bottles for sale in the shop.

2. i have the Kodak Rapid Fixer (fix A and B), to make one gallon solution for film. i opened it in the summer, more than 7 months ago, and made only a portion of working solution. 3/4 of the stock is left closed in the original bottle, in dark, in a relatively cool place (it is israel, like miami or so, not greenland or canada). is it still useable too ?

thanks for attention, victor

 

[brucemuir]

Hey Vic,
test the fixer with a short leader left over from when you load your reels.

Fixer generally keeps fairly well and some types of concentrates will precipitate sulphur and leave cloudy flakey particles that are easy to see in solution. It will sometimes smell of sulphur when its going.

I wouldn't recommend mixing a partial bag although it's safer to do this with fixer than with developers. Fixers contain less separate ingredients so it's less likely you will get severe mixing errors when making a partial bag of dry chemicals.

I'm guessing your Kodak rapid fixer you mixed 7 months ago is still okay but inspect it for sulphur flakes and do a clip test with the leader. Just save the leader that you trim off, no need to develop it first for the test.

Depending on the film and fixer type it should start to get clear in under a minute with rapid fixer. the Kodak powder fixer takes a longer time to do it's job.

 

[MattKing]

Kodak "matrix" with lots of useful info: http://wwwcaen.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e103cf/e103cf.pdf

 

[tkamiya]

I used to use Kodak Professional Fixer. (the powder kind) I have no experience with Kodak's version of rapid fixers.

With the powdered kind, the mixed solution per instructions on the bag is the working solution. I store it in a regular photo chemistry bottle available from most photo stores - the brown plastic jug. The bag says differently but my experience is that they last for 6 months with no problems and they are at least capable of processing the number of papers or films specified on the bag. I keep track of them by making marks on the bottle.

There are opinions about mixing partial bags. I don't do it personally as I have no needs to do it that way.

Fixer chemistry are not known to degrade with oxygen or light. So any bottle should be fine but I would avoid exposing to direct sunlight for hours at a time or to extreme temperatures just as a matter of good chemistry handling practices.

 

[vic vic]

thanks a lot for your answers and suggestions !

 

[cmacd123]

And remember that the Powder Kodak fixer is the "regular" kind and not rapid fixer, so the process time is longer. It has been a long while since I used it, but fix time for film was 10 minutes.

to check either, save the leader of a roll of film. Put a drop of fixer on teh leader and wait till it starts to clear, then put the entire leader in the fix, and take the time until you can no longer see the spot as a different colour - the entire film being clear. Twice that time is the minimum required fixing time, and it should be less than the time indicated on the fixer package or data sheet. if it is longer, the fixer is past its prime and may not be wise to use.

 

[Roger Cole]

The Rapid Fix concentrate should be fine. I'm using some now I opened in September, albeit stored in my cool basement. I've kept it over a year, longer unopened.

The Part B, BTW, is the hardener. If you don't want hardener you can just leave it out. I leave it out of paper fix but use it for film, though some folks don't. It's mainly (or entirely, not sure if anything else is in it) sulfuric acid so it's very corrosive