Slitting film precisely (lengthwise)

Photo Engineer · Mar 18, 2010

Steven;

Ever try to clean up a spill of gelatin from the floor? Especially nice to try when hardener has been added! Or, try to clean the dirty cold equipment after a run? Or, when things go wrong, try to "unclog" the coating machine or the slitter or chopper?

Hahahah. I could wish these on my worst enemy but not on any APUG member.

BTDT.

PE

Prest_400 · Mar 26, 2010

steven_e007 said:
Here's the best idea, then...

Maybe, at the weekend when the factory is shut, Ilford could just chuck us the keys and we can slip in and run off a few 'interesting' sizes and maybe coat a few glass plates whilst were at it? Always wanted to be let loose with that machine!

As long as we promise to tidy up the mess afterwards, eh?

That would be interesting for sure.
I've read a thread, on another forum, where an ex worker of Ilford mentions how the control room for coating operations is:
http://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=003667

Very interesting to watch it all happen and then see the material carry on through its chillers and dryers etc from one floor to the next. One cock-up and you ended up with 100's of feet of raw film to bin. Obviously you used infrared goggles to watch and infrared cameras to monitor all stages of the operation in the control room. This was like entering the control room of a power station. So many dials and switches. The speed the material moved through the head controlled the thickness of the layer. The material would pass through the head a number of times depending on the number of layers being coated. It was only possible to put down so many layers per pass. Any variation in layer thickness and the characteristics of the product were completely changed.

Sounds interesting. That machine must be huge, heard something about 100m long.
I'd like to visit the factory someday (5-10 years). It's quite close to Manchester as far I know.

Photo Engineer · Mar 26, 2010

Ilfochrome was / is a positive color product that was once called Cibachrome. It is manufactured by Ilford in Switzerland.

Ilford in England did make a color negative film for a short while.

PE

frobozz · Mar 29, 2010

frobozz said:
Huh, OK. I had some older 220 film I shot and I was annoyed by how thin the film base stock was, so decided to just stick with 120 instead. Now I need to go dig that up and figure out what was really going on...

Duncan

Finally dug it up... With a digital micrometer, it measures .013mm thick. Some nearby similar 120 film measured .012mm thick (i.e. the 220 was imperceptibly *thicker*, not thinner!)

So who knows what the heck I was thinking. I remember HP-5 in 72-exposure rolls being ridiculously too thin to work with, but clearly I'm just confused in remembering that 220 was also like that. Sheesh. Time to go shoot the rest of that brick I have of 220 rolls!

Duncan

coisasdavida · Oct 29, 2016

Please excuse me as I bring up this old thread.
I have been given some infrared 12 inch wide film for imagesetters. I cut a piece of it and develop it, seems ok.
I looked at the links at the first page it seems pretty straight forward to build a slitter to get this to a bunch, I mean 5 rolls for 120.
Has any of you done with such wide film?

bsdunek · Oct 29, 2016

I slit film all the time for my Minox's. Delta 100 is great and Delta 400 is good for low light - but a little grainy in Minox format.
I don't have trouble with stress marks or dust. I am very careful how I handle the film and use an anti-static cloth when loading the cassettes. You can see some results on my web site. I use an Al Spoil slitter from Goat Hill. Uses razor blades easily replaced. I modified a paper craft punch to put a hole in the ends and build a measuring board to cut film to length. Works for me.

paul ron · Oct 29, 2016

heres a guy that just may be able to help everyone.......

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Slitting film precisely (lengthwise)

Photo Engineer

Prest_400

Photo Engineer

frobozz

coisasdavida

bsdunek

paul ron

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