Its a pity you cannot buy bulk length's of 120 film. Perhaps one could then spool their own, reusing old wrappers?
Would that be feasible?
Barry
I did that, sort of, some seventeen years ago, when I was made a gift of a pro-pack of 20 rolls of TXP-220. The only problem is that I own an older Rolleiflex, which only uses 120 film.
I sacrificed one roll of 220, to find out just how long the film was. I then took individual rolls of 220, and cut them in half. Using a friend's table saw, I cut a piece of 3/4-inch plywood exactly to the same width as the film was, and about 3-1/2 feet long. I would use a piece of discarded 120 backing paper, and I would loop it over the top of the plywood, with the black side of the paper out. At the very top of the wood, where the piece of tape was from the original roll of film, I would attach the paper with a standard office paper clamp, the kind designed for thick stacks of paper. I would attach a 120 spool to the other end, and roll it up a few turns; because I had cut the plywood to the exact width of the 120 spool, I was able to push a 120 roll onto it and it would hold in place.
Then, lights out, and I would take one of the half-220 rolls I had cut, and would clip it under the paper clamp. I would roll it down the length of the paper, making sure it was square to the edge. Then, I started to roll the paper up using the spool; I would slip the edge of the film under it, and keep rolling, always making sure the film was still square. When I got to the top, there was a bit of a lump or buldge in the film, compared to the paper. I would release the clamp, and give the spool a half-turn, and then attach a piece of pre-cut masking tape to the film, and attach it to the paper. I kept rolling until the film-paper combination was tightly wrapped on the spool. I secured the roll with another piece of masking tape, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and stored it in my refrigerator, until it was needed.
I only had problems with one or two times when I was making the 120 rolls, and there were a few (a very few) frames with dust on them. I don't recall having any rolls jam in the camera. And, I never knew how the film was oriented in the individual rolls; that is, the first frame exposed might have been frame number 12, or 13, or 24. I quickly adopted the practice of numbering the frames as soon as the film was dry. All in all, I got 34-36 usable rolls of 120 film. The trick seems to have been cutting the plywood to a precise width; if that hadn't been done properly, then this exercise would probably have ended in more unusable than usable rolls.
One of my favorite photos of my wife was taken on one of these rolls, when she was drying her hair. I would never have made the negative if this film wasn't at hand, and I was able to document a number of events in our lives using this film, so there you are.
