Paterson reels

played with my replacement one today, the replacement lid is a little to small to fit properly. old tank lid was fine.

redbandit said:

I managed to get a paterson tank with 2 reels, and i ended up getting 2 defective reels.

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Paterson has its customers who love its products, but I've been kitting out my darkroom for more than 40 years, and I refuse to have their crap in mine anymore. Their System 4 tanks (current tanks) are poorly designed and hard to safely use for inversion agitation. I do not know what it is about their reels, but most users get them slugged up and sticking when attempting to load film. The AP reels and related products seem much better quality. They are also sold under their house brand names by Freestyle and B&H, so maybe those sellers know something we are not being told? Their enlarging grain focusing aid nearly made me blind - just optical shit. I gave it away. I still use one of their plastic graduated cylinders.

Randy Stewart said:

Paterson has its customers who love its products, but I've been kitting out my darkroom for more than 40 years, and I refuse to have their crap in mine anymore. Their System 4 tanks (current tanks) are poorly designed and hard to safely use for inversion agitation. I do not know what it is about their reels, but most users get them slugged up and sticking when attempting to load film. The AP reels and related products seem much better quality. They are also sold under their house brand names by Freestyle and B&H, so maybe those sellers know something we are not being told? Their enlarging grain focusing aid nearly made me blind - just optical shit. I gave it away. I still use one of their plastic graduated cylinders.

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The tripods they sell give me the willies just lookin at the photos online...

Im not exactly jumping for joy but i dont feel lik spending 30+tax and shipping to get samigon / ap reels for the big tabs.

Randy Stewart said:

Paterson has its customers who love its products, but I've been kitting out my darkroom for more than 40 years, and I refuse to have their crap in mine anymore. Their System 4 tanks (current tanks) are poorly designed and hard to safely use for inversion agitation.

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I've had very different results, although I prefer the AP reels for loading 120.
Unlike some who have posted on Photrio, I haven't had problems with the wider flanges on the AP reels causing uneven development.
I expect that the model identification here is merely a typo, but would point out that a System 4 tank is really old.
The Super System 4 tanks replaced the System 4 tanks about a 1/3 of a century ago.

Damp ballbearings have been the snag in feeding film into the Patterson reels, for me at least.

Physically checking that the bearing move freely before loading film, will greatly cut back on the sticking issue, IMO.

Cheers.

eli griggs said:

Damp ballbearings have been the snag in feeding film into the Patterson reels, for me at least.

Physically checking that the bearing move freely before loading film, will greatly cut back on the sticking issue, IMO.

Cheers.

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moisture IS an issue, but i think that the manner of dealing with the film leader is bigger with the small flange units like patterson and samigon are making.

when i screwed up my lens test spools i only had difficulty STARTING and FEEDING the negative through the ball bearing section on the roll i CUT the leader off of.

redbandit said:

moisture IS an issue, but i think that the manner of dealing with the film leader is bigger with the small flange units like patterson and samigon are making.

when i screwed up my lens test spools i only had difficulty STARTING and FEEDING the negative through the ball bearing section on the roll i CUT the leader off of.

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You should always cut the leader off so the film end is squared. Then pull the end past the little balls before you start twisting the two halves of the spiral. Without being there, I find it hard to imagine how this can go wrong.

redbandit said:

moisture IS an issue, but i think that the manner of dealing with the film leader is bigger with the small flange units like patterson and samigon are making.

when i screwed up my lens test spools i only had difficulty STARTING and FEEDING the negative through the ball bearing section on the roll i CUT the leader off of.

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Once your reels are dry, (and it seems that they might be one more difficult over time because of photo-flo, so wash with clean water and a few drops of Dawn Sink detergent, also rinsed off), cut the leader off without leaving a winding sprocket cracked/broken and irregular, and do as the post above this recommends and pull the first few inches through the loading gate.

Getting the action of winding on with one side, ie the right, and switching over to the left hand to hold the film in place as you bring up that half of the reel can be difficult for some folks whom do no have good motor function in their hands, but with practice, can be overcome, just slow down your reeling on to a quarter (1/4) until you have the certitude of the process.

I have both types of reels, the System Four type and steel and both serve well, but I do reach for the steel first out of long habit and tall tanks.

In the end that's what it comes down to, personal preference and ability to do the work without becoming irked by the process and equipment.

Lastly, save your leaders and tails from your rolls for reuse in bulk loading new rolls for film, without the waste of sacrificing good film for those duties.

Happy Holidays and Godspeed to All,
Eli