Settling in Rapid Fixer bottles

drumminor2nd · May 26, 2011

Hi, all. I was given a whole bunch of darkroom chemicals recently, and among the goodies were 8 boxes of Kodak Rapid Fixer with hardener. These each make a gallon of fixer for film, or 2 for prints.

I opened one of the boxes, and it appears there is a lot of yellow sediment on the side (I guess it was stored sideways).

How do I mix it back up? Do I just mix the crap out of it, or add some of the necessary water into the bottle to mix it up before mixing the whole thing? Is it worthless now?

Thanks,
--Bob

Vaughn · May 26, 2011

My understanding the fixer is dead -- that the yellow is a sulfur compound and will not "mix" back in.

drumminor2nd · May 26, 2011

If that's the case... crap... I've got 8 boxes of the stuff. Can I at least make some meth out of it?

Just kidding about the illicit drug manufacturing. I know kids (or feds) might be reading

Anybody else got an opinion?

Ronald Moravec · May 26, 2011

Garbage can. Sorry

MattKing · May 26, 2011

Check to see if any of the other boxes are okay.]

And be careful disposing of the Part B hardener - it is concentrated acid, and is the reason that shipping of that fixer can be subject to hazmat charges.

drumminor2nd · May 26, 2011

Nope, all bad...the stuff was made in 1998, so it doesn't surprise me.

A warning to everyone else out there cleaning out old darkrooms... c'est la vie. The D76 packets are intact and look good. Developed some film from those, and seems to be good. At least I got enough for 20 gallons of that. Not bad for the grand total price of free

Any good ways of getting rid of the hardener?

Vaughn · May 27, 2011

drumminor2nd said:
...Any good ways of getting rid of the hardener?

Yeah -- send it to me for free and I'll use it (university darkroom). I just got my order of 8 bottles (76 oz each) of Kodak Rapid Fixer Part B in (to go with my order of 8 cubetainers -- 5 gal each -- of Part A), but I'll still put it to use. Otherwise find someone local or dilute and down the drain.

PS -- congrats on the D-76!

Vaughn

piu58 · May 27, 2011

The settlings are sulphur. That could be filtered out. But additional you have sulphite int ethe solution wihich gives afert fixing non soluble aregntum sulphite - a brown deposit. This makes the fixer no longer useful.

Mike Wilde · May 27, 2011

I use the sulphured out B with the sulphur removed as a fertilizer for my lawn. Add it to the old pesticide dilution bottle and put it on the hose sprayer next time the yard needs a watering, and it gets a good dosing of ammonnium.

Settling in Rapid Fixer bottles

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