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Love and clips...

anikin

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I've inherited some film clips with other darkroom equipment. See the picture. I am now desperately in love with these. They are just perfect for hanging LF film to dry, but most importantly, they are perfect for hanging large fiber prints by corners. This way prints dry vertically and with minimal curl. Anyway, I want to get more of these. Does anyone recognize the clip? Who made them? And most importantly, where can I get more of them?
 

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I have never seen anything like it.

You could replicate it by modifying the clamping area of a crocodile clip and then soldering it to a strip of brass.


Steve.
 
anikin said:
I am now desperately in love with these. ...And most importantly, where can I get more of them?
Click to expand...

Check S&M sites . (Oh, and I also have never seen anything like it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)



P.S. Sorry. I just had to parse, given your considerable passion for them.
 
Any chance they were designed for X-rays?
 
ROL said:
Check S&M sites . (Oh, and I also have never seen anything like it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)



P.S. Sorry. I just had to parse, given your considerable passion for them.
Click to expand...

Isn't APUG classified as a S&M site?
 
I have a low tech DIY option that works like the nice stainless clip you show.

I think I got part of it from an old Ansel Adams tip I read somewhere.

You take a conventional wooden spring clothes peg, and take it apart, and install the spring 'backwards' so the thin tapering parts - usually the parts that your fingers squeeze, which mate smoothly to one another are the part squeezed together by the spring.

That is what holds your print by the corner, or film edge.

I then undo a conventional paper clip, and use the small trombone part to hook over the wire line over my sink, and bend the fat part to run though the middle of the spring of the clothes peg to hold it up.

the next refinement was to cut off the 'backs' of the new clothesclip so that it does not tip over when it is empty.

The final 'twist' was to turn the orientation so thst the hooks aligh the clips 90 degrees to the support wire.

Now I have about 30 clips on the wire, can hang up to 8x10's DW FB's about 2" apart,and know that they will be damp dry without any touching the next one in about half an hour.
After that they go face down on screens, and are all dry the next morning. Larger print sizes need more space betwen each other to not touch. But is is rare for me to print more than 10 larger than 8x10 FB in one night.
 
The closest I could find showed up under Radiography Clip in Google Image Search. I can't be sure, from their images, if the pincer part is exactly the same as yours, however. There are also similar looking items listed under Dental X-Ray Film Clips. As to where either of those items I mentioned can be bought, they're listed on a site called Alibaba.com, of which I know nothing. Both items seem only to be available in Pakistan.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your search!
 
Thank you everybody for your help. I think Molli hit the nail in the head so to speak. I'll try to order from alibaba, and if it does not work, I'll talk to my dentist to find out where he gets his clips. I'm happy now that I know where these came from.
 
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anikin said:
Isn't APUG classified as a S&M site?
Click to expand...

No that's the FAP group on google+


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Too much slippage with the Lee Valley clips. One would need to hack it to make it more secure. A couple of small holes in the clip and a similarly small screw to pinch the film ala Patterson or Jobo clips would work but that's probably too much work for clips.
 

Yes, that's what I love about the clips I have is that they make a small pinhole right on the edge of the film and hold it with a death grip. The opening is just big enough to get to the edge of viewing area, but not any closer. Jobo clips design looks fairly similar but I just like these much more. I made an inquiry on alibaba, but no response so far. I think that next time I see my dentist I will ask him where he gets his clips.
 
Those look like the hang the film parallel to the line, which would be good for prints, but you can hang more sheet film in less space with Jobo clips, which hold the film perpendicular to the line, also with a pin, so one clip holds any format from the corner. Jobo clips are expensive, but if you can find them, they are the best.
 
An update. Thank's to Molli's advice, I ended up searching e-bay for "xray clip" and found something very similar to mine. I've ordered a dozen clips for $16.91. They came yesterday and they are pretty much what I was looking for. And for less than $2 a piece, I can afford as many as I want. By the way, if desired, one can use two pliers to bend the long stem so that film hangs perpendicular to the line. Thank you guys and gals for all your help!

By the way, here's what I do to the fiber prints with these clips. They dry reasonably flat, good enough for framing right away.
 

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I believe these are/were clips for processing dental x-rays- usually 1 or 2 teeth wide (about 30mm x 30mm) Ask you friendly dentist.
 
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