Would love to hear from the community where I can find an RA4 processor that recycles / replenished the chemicals water etc.
How many prints at a session? In terms of economy, nothing beats a Nova slot processor.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'recycling'.
Automatic replenishment would be limited to larger professional machines. Undoubtedly there have been models of 20" and smaller that had automatic replenishment, but they aren't very common on the market today. You occasionally run into larger machines (e.g. 40" and upwards) with automatic replenishment. These aren't very common because most of them have been scrapped around 20 years ago when the world moved to digital. Occasionally an old Colenta etc. turns up in a shed somewhere and might be brought back to life with some care and dedication.
This means that replenishment will be manual for smaller machines, but in practice, this isn't a problem. It's perfectly feasible to replenish after a couple of dozen prints if you're working with a chemistry volume of just a few liters (e.g. the 2.5l for a Durst RCP20). There's no discernible or problematic color drift if you do it this way.
Your best bet to find something is to get in touch with darkroom workers in your area and build a network of people who have similar interests. These machines have become rather rare and especially the smaller ones are very sought after. Keep an eye on local ads on eBay or whatever second hand trading platforms are popular in France and be prepared to jump on the occasion if something turns up. Smaller machines like the Durst RCP20 are reasonably common in Europe, but most of them will have warped/expanded rollers by now due to corrosion, so inspect the machine you're about to buy very carefully. Ensure that it works as intended, preferably ask the seller to demonstrate proper functioning to you. Or bid accordingly on machines with (repairable) defects.
Be prepared to be on the lookout for a long time unless you have a good network and/or you're very lucky.
Moderator note: if your thread devolves in a "would you sell a machine to me" type of question, we'll have to delete it and ask you to post a 'want to buy' ad in the Classifieds section. Please keep this in mind in directing your thread from here. Thanks.
I have heard you can 3D print rollers for the RCP
I just don't want to waste chemicals but you make it sound less scary for sure.
What do you all think?
he said if you are leaving it more than 4 weeks then flush it but otherwise it’s fine.
Get the Printo if you can afford it. It doesn't have these rubber rollers.
I disagree with this. Maybe it's fine for the machine, but it's not fine for your chemistry. Especially the developer is not designed to be left with such a large surface open to oxidation. It's really better to drain it and store it in an oxygen-free environment. How often you should replenish is really a matter of the total volume and how many prints you run through it. If you run two sessions of a day each and 100 prints at a time through an RCP20 and only replenish every other session, I'm quite sure you'll run into trouble.
In any case, if the advice you've received so far makes you more confident in getting started, then that's all good. The person in the UK may disagree on a couple of details with me, but I think we both agree that you don't have to worry too much about this.
If you can afford a refurbished machine, I'd definitely go for it.
160ml replenishment
Do you recomend Bellini Chemistry ?
I've got plenty of affected rollers in the pair of RCP's I've got here, but haven't gotten around to messing with it, yet.
If it is of interest to you I have made a video a few months ago on the subject.
"Durst RCP20 paper processor roller repair"
Btw, I notice the gears on you developer and blix racks are belt-driven. Mine are only interlocking gears without any belts. I didn't know there were any belt-driven racks out there. I assume it wasn't a custom modification, was it?
It was not a custom modification.
The only modification I have made on the machine was fitting a variable speed motor.
Epoxy glue could have been better for gluing the acrylic to the metal bar, but for the moment I haven't seen any problem.
Everything seem to be tight. The part I was the most concerned about, was the rubber tube moving but once they are set they are really difficult to move again.
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