Paterson roll tank repair

hoffy · May 21, 2010

I'm having a good night in the darkroom...

The funnel section of my old Paterson tank has come away from the lid. My tank is a vintage from the early 70's and is that harder plastic type.

It appears that it was only glued there in the first place.

Would repairing with Superglue be sufficient (to be honest, this looks like what it was done with in the first place). Will superglue be safe from contaminating any of the processing chems?

Cheers

Ian Grant · May 21, 2010

Ideally go to a model sop and get polystyrene cement i't very cheap, that works perfectly with Paterson tanks, I had taht happen to one in the 70's and it's still in use today.

Superglue will work though, leave a day or so and there's no chemical problem.

ian

Rick A · May 21, 2010

I dont know if super glue will adhere to that plastic. Gorilla Glue might be a better choice, or JB weld. Try the Super Glue first. Once cured, it should be safe with chems. If it holds, let it cure for a day or two to be certain.

Konical · May 21, 2010

Good Afternoon,

Sometime back in the 1970's (??), I cracked a Paterson tank while doing the recommended procedure of rapping it on a table to dislodge any possible developer air bubbles. I repaired it with what might be the same stuff Ian has mentioned, or something chemically similar. I still have the bottle (Testor's Plastic Cement); its a clear liquid which works by softening plastic which is then pressed together until "welding" occurs. It worked like a charm, and I have in front of me the bottle, which has a price of 29 cents printed on the top. I always assumed that it was acetone. A check of the label indicates methyl isobutyl ketone and methyl cellosolve acetate as components. Lacking the benefit of a chemistry class in my background, I'm guessing that may equate, colloquially at least, to acetone. The Paterson tank is still in good shape, although the incident helped convince me to move to SS tanks and reels which I've used almost exclusively since.

Konical

Seabird · May 21, 2010

I had exactly the same thing happen with my old Paterson tank. I can confirm that superglue will work - for a while anyway. I had to "reglue" the fitting a number of times until I eventually gave up and purchased another second-hand tank. I never noticed any effect from chemicals in the glue on my (B&W) negs.

Cheers

Carey Bird
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cbird/index.html

sgpix · May 21, 2010

This happened on my older-style Paterson tank, too. Superglue did the job, but I ended up buying a new tank.

hoffy · May 21, 2010

Thanks Guys,

I do have a second tank as well, but its nice to load both tanks up and do batches.

Cheers

Ian Grant · May 22, 2010

Konical is right about the Plastic cement, that's the ideal, I had a Paterson tank damaged in my luggage while flying, there was a piece chipped out - small hole half way up. I used super-glue but it's messier than Plastic cement but it repaired OK - the piece fitted back in place, then I used Black nail polish to coat over the area. It was a nothing ventured nothing gained exercise, I had the glue & nail polish (as you do ), and couldn't get another tank locally, that was over 3 years ago and the tanks been no problem since.

Ian

ozphoto · May 22, 2010

Hey Hoffy - could also try Loctite. It adheres to just about everything including your fingers - be really careful it's a real pain to remove!!

David William White · May 22, 2010

I superglued my Paterson 3 reel tank, which I cracked from the threads to halfway down. That was two years & hundreds of rolls ago...fast, cheap, water-tight, no problems.

fschifano · May 22, 2010

Forget cyanoacrylate adhesives (Superglue), they're tricky to use and you mess up almost as often as you succeed. JB Weld or JB Quick is what you want. I've repaired all sorts of things with this stuff, from a cracked, cast aluminum rocker arm cover on a Moto Guzzi motorcycle to a plastic developing tank. I've even repaired a broken tripod head with it. Gorilla glue is no good for plastic. Because it expands like crazy as it cures, it's great for repairing wood and other fibrous structural materials. As a liquid it flows into the spaces between the fibers. As it cures, it hardens and expands to lock the two pieces together at almost the cellular level.

Q.G. · May 22, 2010

For plastics, polystyrene cement would be perfect. Nothing else will be better.

michaelbsc · May 22, 2010

Here's about a 5th for the polystyrene cement. Testor's model glue is the same thing. It's actually made for things like this. And the Patterson tanks happen to be a type of plastic it works on.

The super glue will hold for a while, but it doesn't actually make the chemical bonds that make it into "one" piece again.

Nicholas Lindan · May 22, 2010

Here comes a 6th: To glue hard plastics you need a glue that will dissolve the plastic. Variously called polystyrene cement, plastic cement and airplane glue, the results will be permanent, water tight and won't degrade with liquids.

Epoxy, superglue, urethane (gorilla) glue will all hold in an emergency, but they will all, with time and water, peal away from the plastic and require re-gluing. Super Glue is a bad choice as it is prone to shattering - and as the tank is rapped sharply to dislodge bubbles it is only a short matter of time until it lets go. If you have to use one of these be sure to roughen the surfaces with some coarse sand paper.

If the plastic is softish like polypropylene (PP for a recycling symbol) or polyethylene (HDPE for a symbol) then epoxy and a well roughened surface is the best you can do - it won't hold all that well, though. If you merely need to hold the cone into place then you might try heat-welding it in place with a soldering iron.

Despite it's name, JB Weld doesn't weld - it is simply epoxy that is 1/2 by weight made up of chalk powder with 1/10th or so of iron powder for appearance - it's claim to fame is that it can be filed, drilled and sanded after it has set; despite the name the resulting 'weld' isn't particularly strong and in wet environments the iron will eventually rust and the 'weld' will disintegrate. It is a very good product where you have to replace lost material, such as fill in a large crack or replace a broken-off bit, as long as it doesn't have to carry much of a load.

Ian Grant · May 23, 2010

I'd agree Epoxy etc will come apart with time thats what I tried on a Paterson tank top in the 70's, but Super-glues (Loctite etc) do dissolve the plastic like polystyrene cement and the repairs do last. However it's thinner than polystyrene cement and tends to run on the plastics where you don't want it. As polystyrene cement is very cheap it's the best choice.

Ian

Steve Smith · May 23, 2010

Q.G. said:
For plastics, polystyrene cement would be perfect. Nothing else will be better.

If it's made from ABS the solvent adhesive used on plastic waste water pipes would work.

Steve.

Ian Grant · May 23, 2010

Paterson tabks aren't ABS.

Ian

Steve Smith said:
If it's made from ABS the solvent adhesive used on plastic waste water pipes would work.
Steve.

Paterson roll tank repair

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