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Rolling my own...

hoffy

Member
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Jan 21, 2009
Messages
3,073
Location
Adelaide, Au
Format
Multi Format
Howdy all,

Before I completely naff up 100ft of film....

Sitting in front of me, I have an old Western 100 35mm film loader, a roll of HP5 (Still in the box....) and some metal cassettes with pop off tops.

Firstly, has anyone had experience with these loaders? The leader length looks awfully long. I can't see anything that can go wrong with these, but should I play it safe and do the actual loading in the dark (I.E., have a much smaller leader, turn the lights off, pull it out, connect the cassette and load)?

Secondly, the spools have a slot in the middle, much like commercial spools, that can be used to hook the film. IT would seem fiddly to try and cut a hole to attach it. Would I be better off using tape? What type of tape should I use?

Cheers and thanks
 
I use masking tape to secure the film to the spool in the cassette. Just make sure that use a long enough length so that it wraps around the spool and sticks to both sides of the film.

I load my cassettes in daylight which means that the last 2-3 frames on the roll are fogged. I add about four frames to every roll that I load to compensate.

The bulk film should already be on a spool which will fit into your loader.
 
Hi Hoffy. I own one of these and they work great.

Peter is correct when he says the bulk film will have its own spool - just drop it over the one in the loader and you are ready to go! And I use masking tape as well (although I have also had success with sticky tape too!)

I also roll my in daylight, but you could certainly do it in the dark to reduce the effect of leader fog - the amount is fairly negligible, but it would save you a few extra frames. The counter works fairly well - I usually get 37/38 frames out of a roll when I use mine.

Enjoy!!
 
for what it's worth...

1. sell the bulk loader on ebay and use the $ for more film
2. load ALL film in total darkness
doing this will result in
A. less wasted film
B. not losing a shot due to exposed film
C. minimal scratching of film

by loading a manual advance camera in total darkness, it is possible to lose almost NO film
by not attaching the film to the spool, it is possible to shoot the last frame, but then you must unload in total darkness

I have yet to find a way to cut the tail end to make it fit on the spool to avoid tape attachment

the spools with the factory attachment are thinner than the solid spindle type, which makes it possible to load more than 36x

when loading film, tape the end to the spindle, make about two revolutions of the spindle, slide spindle into housing with film sticking out, install end cap, wind spindle until winding is firm, pull out until easier and then a little bit more, cut film and put away remainder of roll

I always take off and put on the end cap that is with the protruding end of the spindle

attach film slick side out to the spindle

I usually use electrical tape
 
I have an old LPL loader which I haven't used for years. The only real mistake I ever made was to not run the tape right around, so it disconnected at the end, and then I couldn't rewind it in my Olympus iS3000. So my advice is to make sure you tape it securely, with either masking tape or regular sticky tape.
 
I've lots of bulk loaders; Lloyds, Watson, Western, you name it, I've got at least one of it. How you lose two or three frames at the end with any of them is beyond me. Only the very last frame is lost if you don't pull out more film than you need. Maybe two if you have a really tiny camera like a Rollie 35. Scratches? Nonsense. The Western and Watson loaders are especially good at this provided of course you don't try to wind the film into the cassette with the light trap shut. One could make an argument for the Lloyds loader with its felt light trap, but not if you keep the felt clean. A bit of low tack masking tape works like a champ at getting any grit off the felt. Not all bulk film is sold on a center core. and if you don't have one, don't worry. The loader will work without it.
 
Hey Hoffy!

Thailand nice and HOT!! Celebrating Chinese New Year and boy, do they set off firecrackers in a big way - my ears still ringing form the 4 sets that went off this morning.

Hope Adelaide is just as exciting??
 
You can tape the spool on. You should use tape instead of just looping it through, as your camera winder will probably wind it right off the spool and into the camera where only a trip to the darkroom will save it.

While you can roll film in daylight, I've done it in the darkroom. In the light, I kept only enough film sticking out into the light to tape the reel on (like 1.5"). Turn out the light, insert the cassette's spool into the winder, unlock the big spool light trap, count out the frames, lock the big spool light trap. Turn on the light. Cut the film at the same position it was before. This prevents your last frame or two from being ruined.

I'm not being cheap about losing a frame or two. I just don't want to get to the end of the roll and realize oops the last two photos I created don't exist. Easy to do with a motor drive camera.

I also avoid cutting across a sprocket hole. It makes a sharp little thing that likes to snag on stuff. If you do cut on one, just trim it 1/16" again to get rid of it.
 
I have a Black Westin B and the film tests to walk off the counter sprockets. I was given a grey later model and it is made so nubs hold the film down, I modified with black with homemade nubs and have not had a problem since.

Just attach the film with masking tape,put it in the cassette, then place the cassete in the receiving slot. This fogs the two frames unless you turn out the lights. The interlocks prevent you from doing so in daylight without fogging.

The 100 feet pays out emulsion down across the sprocket frame counter and onto the spool with the exposed end pointing away from the crank. Check the first one so it fits into the camera properly.

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/photo school index.html

see the lesson on bulk loading.
 
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