Samigon 35mm Tank Use - Dumb Question

MCTuomey · Nov 26, 2006

Excuse my newness, pls. Purchased a modest processing kit for home: HC-110, stop bath, fixer, cylinders, etc and a plastic Samigon tank w/dual spirals.

Practiced with the spiral. Nimble enough to manage to process my first roll (FP4+). And then hit the wall. After doing all the chemistry, the wet film would not budge from the spiral. I tugged gently at first, then a bit more forcefully. Mistake! The strip buckled inwardly. Although I extracted it, most of the strip was pitifully crinkled. Negs ruined. Help!

Btw, I did hang and dry them despite their crinkled state. Put them on the light table and, gosh, it seems I did everything else quite well. So I'm encouraged despite my stupid move at the end.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Konical · Nov 26, 2006

Good Morning,MC,

I'm not exactly sure what you did here, the "tugged gently" phrase is unclear. Generally, film can be removed from a reel without any real force or difficulty. It's just a matter of gently flexing the outward end into a slightly more convex shape (base side out); once a inch or two of the film releases from the reel, the rest should come out almost effortlessly just by turning the reel and lifting the film away from it. Since you've mentioned that you're using a plastic reel, I wonder if that reel might not just come completely apart; most plastic reels are adjustable for different film sizes and will separate into two sections without any difficulty. By the way, is the film 35mm or 120? Hint: simplify life--start using SS reels.

Konical

jolefler · Nov 26, 2006

I'm with Konical, somewhat unclear, but, on most plastic reels the film doesn't come out the way it went on. Either the reel splits or you can flex gently & unwind. Other than that...Congrats!

Neal · Nov 26, 2006

Dear McTuomy,

I think those reels have little ball bearings that help push the film onto the reel (like an overrunning clutch). It might have been that you were trying to pull it out and the bearings were resisiting. I usually find that if I peel the end of the film away from the reel, I can pull it out easily. Occasionally, I have to unroll it from the reel as I go, but that is quite rare.

Congratulations. You will soon overcome this difficulty.

Neal Wydra

gainer · Nov 26, 2006

If you were using stainless steel reels, you would find that you cannot load them by pushing the film through the groove. You must start at the center of the reel, curve the film across its width, and wind the film onto the reel. Unloading is the reverse. I have more trouble loading those reels with the ball bearing things. Unloading is the same for both types. If you get the outer end of the film out of its groove, hang on to it and just drop the reel, the weight of the reel will probably unwind it.

MCTuomey · Nov 26, 2006

gainer, neal, konical, jolefler

thanks very much for the tips

yes, the spiral is plastic and has the ball bearing stops. i wound the film past the BB stops and then tried to pull it backward, reversing the way it went onto the reel. I thought it would slide out just as easily as it went in, but no, it didn't.

Next time I'll be sure to start out by bending the film so that the edges aren't in the groove. And consider stainless ;-)

srs5694 · Nov 28, 2006

Another point, and more an FYI thing: Plastic reels become hard to load when wet. The film just won't budge on wet reels. This could have been one factor making it difficult to unload the reels. I mention this mainly so you know about it and don't try to load a roll onto a wet reel in the future. In my experience, even humidity in the summer or from my own evaporating perspiration in a small room can make loading a plastic reel difficult. Stainless steel reels don't have this particular problem, since they're loaded in a very different way, as gainer has outlined. (That said, some people prefer plastic for other reasons; I'm not trying to say that stainless steel is 100% superior to plastic for all people.)

gainer · Nov 28, 2006

The usual cure for sticky plastic reels is to load them under water. This applies to those that have the ball bearings. Most plastic reels can be loaded from the center as with the stainless steel ones, even the ones that have the so-called (but misnamed) "auto load" feature. Under water loading is too messy for me. You need a big bucket full in total darkness. Forget it!

MCTuomey · Nov 29, 2006

srs, you have a good point. i think the resistance i felt when trying to extract the film after development from the reel may have been due to water surface tension between the film and the reel. this weekend i'm going to try breaking the tension by curving the edges of the film inward and out of the reel grooves, as neal, gainer and others suggested.

gainer · Nov 29, 2006

More likely it was because the ball bearing autoload device is specifically designed to prevent film from slipping back when you load the tank, which means it will not allow slipping when you try to slide the film off the reel through the little balls. In other words, it is a one-way device like an electronic rectifier.

Bob F. · Nov 30, 2006

Do not try to pull the film backwards out of the spiral - as you found, as you pull it, it just sticks tighter. Grab the visible end of the film and pull it up out of the grooves and gently unwind it from the spiral by continuing to pull it out of the grooves, letting the spiral turn freely in your other hand as you do so (easier to do than explain!).

Good luck, Bob.

MCTuomey · Dec 3, 2006

Thanks, Bob. I understand - you described my problem perfectly. And the solution. I wasn't able to develop this weekend, but I'll have a chance next weekend. I'll post a follow-up then, but I don't anticipate any problems.

Btw, I loaded up a waste strip on the reel a few minutes ago, wetted it, and then extracted it per your instructions. Perfect. The roll just "unfurls" without any trouble. I like this method better than splitting the reel in halves.

Thanks again, everyone. A kind, patient crowd.

Samigon 35mm Tank Use - Dumb Question

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