Max load of Paterson Orbital?

[Jarvman]

Hi all, I've been making some pt/pd prints lately and am getting bored of rocking the trays for half an hour to clear prints properly. Was thinking of trying out the Paterson Orbital as a motor base. I understand they are designed for 8x10" film and 400ml of dev the most. Would the motor base cope with a 12x16" tray filled with a liter of citric acid/sulfite and edta. is this modification possible or would it be overkill for the thing?

Cheers

 

[Steve Smith]

I expect the motor base would cope but I don't know if you would ne that much. For developing ordinary film, most people use about 100ml - and that is a lot more than is actually needed.

They were actually designed for 8x10 colour paper but do very well with 8x10 and 5x4 film.

EDIT: I see what you mean now. You want to modify it to take a normal tray. I think it would be o.k. if you could keep the centre of gravity as low as possible.


Steve.

 

[youngrichard]

Don't know about the Paterson, but this was my solution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJB6QMmmTe9

Richard

 

[youngrichard]

I should have said that the clip was posted in APUG under the title Motorised Dish Rockers on 16 Feb 2011, where you will find commentary. Not sure how to link to that.
Richard

 

[paul_c5x4]

The motor inside the Paterson base is a tiny little syncro motor with gearbox rated 3W at 5-600RPM. Mine sometimes struggles with the standard tray with 300ml of chemistry. Would it cope with a 12x16 tray - I doubt it very much and even if the motor did have enough grunt, I'd expect chemicals sloshing out of the tray onto the work surface.

 

[Steve Smith]

Mine sometimes struggles with the standard tray with 300ml of chemistry.

I'm sure it does. It's only supposed to take 55ml!


Steve.

 

[cluttered]

I'm sure it does. It's only supposed to take 55ml!

According to http://www.rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps how orbital.html 55ml is a minimum. I normally use somewhere around 90-120ml, depending on the developer dilution I'm using (to keep the mental arithmetic easier). Is there a manual somewhere online? I haven't found one yet.

 

[Jarvman]

Guess I'll rethink this idea then! Your way seems to work well Richard.