wogster
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After 30 years of using a GAF plastic tank that I bought new in 1979, courtesy of another APUG member I now have a Nikor SS tank and reel. According to him the tank and reel are probably 30 years old, fits right in here....
This is what I plan to do:
Waste a roll of film, cheap expired film is fine, heck it can even be expired colour film. I have a roll of Fuji Superia 800 that I will never use in 100 years, so I am probably going to sacrifice it. I prefer B&W and find 400 is fast for the kinda stuff I like to shoot. Besides if I really want high speed colour I have the Canon d*****l SLR.
Then start in the light, you want to load it on there watching what your doing to make sure you get it right, do it several times, until you can do it repeatedly, then close your eyes and do it again a few times. Next go into the dark or use your changing bag, and do it again several times. Let it sit for a week, now do it again a couple of times, if it's working really well. Take another roll of film, go out and shoot crap, the dog, neighbours cat, flowers in the garden, the car, doesn't matter. Load that roll onto the reel, put it in the tank and process it, using your normal chemistries and regular processing times. If this roll turns out perfect, then you know you have it down and can process a roll that matters.
When I was in high school (1979), I found out that school darkrooms are notorious for contaminated chemistries, where the developer should have been replaced 3 weeks ago and if they use a replenishing developer, it happens only when the teacher notices the 1 Gallon developer bottle is down about 6 ounces and tops it up with replenisher. I bought my own tank, some graduates, a thermometer, some film clips and chemicals, and processed all my film at home, then printed at school. This way I knew that my film would always be properly processed, because I was the only one using that equipment and chemicals.
I used the school darkroom only for printing, if a print doesn't turn out due to old or contaminated chemicals, like someone topping up the tray of tar coloured Dektol with stop bath, reprinting was always possible. If you spent three days out to get the perfect shot, and your film processing got screwed up, you were sunk. I think most of the class spent 20 minutes on new assignments and 3 hours re-shooting stuff that got screwed up.