Old chemicals

[tossik]

Hi everyone, I bought some darkroom equipment about two years back and with everything came a box of chemicals.

All kodak brand:

- Indicator stop bath 1 pint (liquid) opened but sealed
- Photo-Flow 200 (open) liquid
- Dektol Developer (powder) new packaged
- Developer D76 (powder) opened in ziplock bag
- Fixer (powder) open in ziplock bag

everything had been on a box for about two years non touched in about 65 degree temperature.

My question is, if any of this is still good to use? And if I mix them into gallon jugs how long will it last in the jug? And what can be reused and what not?

I took a class long tome ago and can't remamber what I can reuse. Please help.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Thomas Wilson]

It should all be fine. I would weigh the open & bagged powders before mixing. Perhaps the previous owner liked to weight-out single-shot portions and left you with partial quantities.

 

[richard ide]

If I was in your position, I would toss the opened packages of fix and developer but everything else will be ok. Even the opened ones might be all right but why take a chance. Not expensive to replace. Photo-flo and stop bath will last a long time. IIRC Dektol will last a year in a full bottle and maybe a couple of months in a part bottle. If you put the developer in filled smaller bottles, The unused ones will last a year. You can re-use indicator stop bath until it turns purple. Fix can also be re-used. Take a clip from the leader of a roll and time how long it takes to clear. Fix your film for twice that time. Test again after 10 - 15 rolls and adjust your time again. Personally I throw out chemistry well before maximum capacity is reached.

 

[tossik]

Thanks for the input, how long of a shelve life would I have after I mixed it all? Or should I do I shot deals?

How would I portion the open bagged chemicals now? Isn't it 1:1?

 

[bdial]

Weighing the opened and bagged powders only helps if you know how much the original package weighed, and you're equipped to do the weighing very accurately. Plus, some of the components in the developer can oxidize just from exposure to air and moisture.
If you want reliablity, it would probably be best to ditch the D-76 and fixer. If you'd like to experiment, then mix them and see what happens.
The hazard of experimenting, especially if you're also a newbee, however, is that you may not be able to determine what failed, if you don't get the results you expect.
That said, the fixer is probably usable, if you can determine how much water is needed to mix it.
Fixer has fewer components, and isn't degraded by oxidation. It's also easy to test, and won't yield ambiguous results.

For the rest of it, I agree with Thomas that the stop, photo-flo, and Dektol are likely fine.

 

[tossik]

Oh thanks Richard, we replied at the same time

 

[Thomas Wilson]

Richard just answered the shelf life question. As for the mixing, find out the weight or mass in grams on an unopened package, weigh what you have in your opened package, and make the proportion calculations based on one gallon final volume.

 

[Thomas Wilson]

Anhydrous fixer is 700 grams (24.7 oz) to make 1 gallon of fixer.

On second thought, I would dump the D-76. There's no sense experimenting with developing negatives.

 

[fschifano]

Opened packages of dry powder developer are always suspect. It's not worthwhile to even bother with the stuff. A package of D-76 cost what, $6 to make a gallon of stock solution? A roll of film can cost almost that much, to say nothing of the time and effort spent making the photographs. Toss it. Same goes for Dektol, except that you'd be losing only some paper if it doesn't work and not an entire roll of film. Dektol costs a whole $7 to make a gallon of stock. Paper sized 8x10 can cost anywhere from $.60 to over $1 per sheet. Do you really want to bother to find out to save such a trivial amount of money on chemicals?

Stop bath and Photoflo have indefinite shelf lives, so no worries there. The fixer might or might not be good. Give it a shot. If it's no good, it won't clear the film, but at least you will not have ruined anything if you have a known fresh batch of fixer ready to go should it prove ineffective.

 

[tossik]

Thanks for the help guys! Much appriciated I will buy new d76 and fixer, but will still mix these chemicals as well just to test. I got plenty of paper and I got hundreds of feet of bulk film so il will make a 10 shot roll and test it tommorrow. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

[like2fiddle]

FWIW, I recently began printing again after having the darkroom out of order for over three years. To my surprise, I am using a liter of Dektol mixed on January 9, 2006 with no problems, though my bottle of "working solution" was no good. My stop bath is fresh because I have continued to develop film in the interim, but I also have been using the fixer that was mixed for print processing back in 2006. I have not made very many prints yet, but so far, so good. I figure that taking a chance on old chemicals for print making is very different from taking a chance on developing film. You can usually make another print...but another negative is a different story altogether

 

[bwfans]

... I figure that taking a chance on old chemicals for print making is very different from taking a chance on developing film. You can usually make another print...but another negative is a different story altogether

Good point.

 

[tossik]

Nice point indeed. That's why I'm gonna make a test roll and see how it goes.