Recipe for Agefix alike fixer?

[Usagi]

Hi,

I am looking for a simple recipe for a acedic rapid fixer. If it's somewhat like Agefix, then it is really good but any other hardening or non-hardening acid rapid fixer recipe will do it.
For non-hardening I will ad Tetenal's hardening solution.

There is some recipes at the chem section, but I didn't found much information about those.

Thanks.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Jukka, pardon me for not being helpful, but do you have a source for ammonium thiosulfate? If not, you can only make non rapid fixers. Even in the case where you can find ammonium thiosulfate, you'll need about 120g of it (or 200ml of 60% solution) to make 1l of "film strength" rapid fixer. That should be roughly equivalent to 1l of 1+4 Agefix solution, but we haven't added the cost of other chemicals needed, like sodium sulfite/metabisulfite, acetic acid, whatever else.

 

[Usagi]

I haven't checked if I can get ammonium thiosulfate. The amount of ammonium thiosulfate required for one liter is so big that it makes ready solutions sound better..

 

[Ian Grant]

You can make a rapid fixer with Sodium Thiosulphate and Ammonium Chloride, that was the old way of doing it before the costs of Ammonium Thiosulphate dropped very significantly making it economic to use commercially.

Agfa 204
Rapid Fixer

Sodium Thiosulphate . . . . . . . 200g
Ammonium Chloride . . . . . . . . 50g
Potassium Metabisulpite . . . . . 20g
Water to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 litre

Ian

 

[Anon Ymous]

You can make a rapid fixer with Sodium Thiosulphate and Ammonium Chloride, that was the old way of doing it before the costs of Ammonium Thiosulphate dropped very significantly making it economic/

Ian

Yes, I was about to mention it, to correct my previous post. Kodak F7 is a sodium thiosulfate/ammonium chloride based fixer, but it's an acidic, hardening fixer. You can probably omit potassium alum and make an acidic, non hardening version of it. I have no idea how good it is though...

 

[Usagi]

The hardening acidic fixer sounds also good, so Kodak F7 would be one option also along with Agfa 204.

 

[Ian Grant]

You really don't need a hardening fixer these days, it just means far longer wash times are needed for now practical benefits.

Ian

 

[Usagi]

Ian, That's true for modern films. But I use a lot of films like Adox CHS 50 Art, Adox CHS 25 Art, ... which has very soft emulsion.
The hardening is needed if tanning development is not used.

For other films I use neutral (or alkaline) fixer without hardener.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Jukka, if you're interested in an alkaline fixer, then (there was a url link here which no longer exists) sounds like something to give a try.

 

[john_s]

From the Agfa Australia 2003 MSDS for Agefix concentrate:

Specific Gravity 1.287
pH Value 5.40

Name [ CAS ] Proportion
Ammonium thiosulfate [ 7783-18-8 ] 40-60 %
Sodium acetate [ 127-09-3 ] 1-5 %
Boric acid [ 10043-35-3 ] 1-5 %
Sodium sulfite [ 7757-83-7 ] 0.5-1 %
Water [ 7732-18-5 ] (To 100%)

Sorry about the formatting!