Thinking of making chemistry from bulk chems

Hello
After reading Stephen Anchell's film development cookbook I'm thinking of making up my own chems for B&W
and have a few questions:
What are the pro's and Cons? pitfalls? cost Vs prepacked ?
Ive used mostly Kodak Xtol & D76, and Dektol paper dev but wouldl ike to see if anything better especially for paper cause I got lots of D76. Looks like Photoger's Formulary is about only source here in Ohio , USA.

Any tips welcome
Kodak Jay
Retina.PhotoWerks

Hi Jay

I did not find it possible to make significant savings making rapid fix - others here may and would welcome their thoughts.
Paper developer I like to mix from scratch when the work warrants the effort. As well sepia toner.

I agree with Bob, fix is just not cost effective to make on you own when you can get it relatively cheap pre made. C-41 can be really cheap.

developers, except for XTOL, I make all mine from seperate chems, both film and paper

As I see it the cons are
- it's a bit more trouble because there are generally more ingredients than pre-packaged
- you have to keep more different chems on hand
- some dry chems like phenidone, glycin, and amidol don't keep very well (I store these in the freezer)
- some chems are only available from one source (glycin, used in Ansco 130, from Photo Formulary)
- you'll need to buy a decent scale

The pros I see are
- you can make a much wider variety of recipes than you can buy pre-packaged
- mixing from scratch is generally more economical on a per-liter basis, though there's the up-front cost
- you're not at the whim of a manufacturer who decides to drop your favority pre-packaged mix

Another source for raw chemicals is Artcraft Chemicals in New York. In fact I get almost everything from them, the big exception being glycin which has to come from PF. I've never had an issue with PF, but since Artcraft is closer to me I pay a bit less for shipping and normally get one-day UPS shipping without having to pay for it.

I agree with Bob regarding the economies or not of scratch-mixed rapid fix. Ammonium thiosulfate is available only in aqueous solution so you end up paying more for shipping because of the weight. There are formulae that use ammonium chloride to make a rapid fix starting with sodium thiosulfate but I was never able to get the stink low enough to be tolerable, so I just pay the shipping. Ole would disagree on this last point.

Jayd said:

Hello
After reading Stephen Anchell's film development cookbook I'm thinking of making up my own chems for B&W
and have a few questions:
What are the pro's and Cons? pitfalls? cost Vs prepacked ?
Ive used mostly Kodak Xtol & D76, and Dektol paper dev but wouldl ike to see if anything better especially for paper cause I got lots of D76. Looks like Photoger's Formulary is about only source here in Ohio , USA.

Any tips welcome
Kodak Jay
Retina.PhotoWerks

Click to expand...

Stephens formulas are a very nice basis to come to hombrew developers in bw.
Kodaks D76 is mentioned by him also the replunisher formulation as I remember correct.
But as an economical basis this developer isn't the real as homebrew.
BECAUSE D76 IS STILL TERRIBLE CHEAP TODAY.........

Have more a look to some special developers.Sometimes you can indeed save lots of money.
But therefore you have to think big !
In amounds of bw developer to store from raw chems for many many films.
Then it may be very economical.
with regards

As explained in Anchell and Troop's book, there is a variety of special purpose developers and if you just want to try one from reading about it , it is easier to just make up from raw chemicals once you have a stock of them.
Here is another menu:
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~simgrant/jackspcs/

Regular fix and especially plain fix, is extremely cheap to make. Rapid fix isn't worth making IMO, I just buy it.

The best reason to mix your own is if you want to experiment with developers that can't be had any other way, or can't be had economically enough unless you mix them.

Thanks for all the help.
I'm thinking not of making D76 or fixer but PMK film developer and a paper developer like ANSCO 130 or maybe even Dektol. I just bough a whole lot of long expired paper that I'm hoping will still give good results . I have over the last few years hoarded a fare amount of film.
I'm quite surprised to hear that C41 is cheap to make.

I forgot to mention the paper I bough is Kodak Poly fiber; in case anyone has suggestions of best developer. it may only be good for kids to draw on with markers but it was enough paper I'l probably never need to buy more at the price of 1 100 sheet box or.

It's fun. I've done a lot of playing around. I make my own Kodak F6 fixer for fiber paper. Buy XTOL, Kodak rapid fix, selenium toner, Bromophen for most paper development. Chemicals get pretty cheap on Ebay. Don't buy big quantities of developing agents until you settle on something you like. Glycin is a great old developing agent, it will turn back into the tar from whence it came and gets messy . I really like Bromophen, clean nice keeps well

Bob Carnie said:

Hi Jay

I did not find it possible to make significant savings making rapid fix - others here may and would welcome their thoughts.
Paper developer I like to mix from scratch when the work warrants the effort. As well sepia toner.

Click to expand...

+1

Mixing your own only makes sense if you want a formula that is not commercially available. Raw chemicals have become harder to obtain and also more expense wiping out any monetary advantage. The law of supple and demand. This is especially true of fixer which actually may be more expensive than commericial products.

Mixing your own rapid fixer may, or may not, make sense financially, depending on your source of ammonium thiosulfate solution. If you have to order it from somewhere else, it might not make sense. On the other hand, you may find a local source, like I did, and buy it cheaply. This substance is also used as a fertiliser, especially for fertigation, so having a look at shops dealing with fertilisers, or farming supplies is worth your time.

Now, generally speaking, mixing your own makes sense IMHO, even for things that are readily available, like D76. You can mix whatever quantity you need and reduce spoil to zero. Besides, you can still save money compared to buying it ready made. Sure, there's an upfront cost involved, because you'll have to buy several raw chemicals at once, but these will last a long time, so it's practically an investment. Other than the raw chemicals themselves, you'll need a fairly accurate scale. I bought mine off ebay for about $10. It's a 100g max capacity, 0,01g resolution scale and does a fine job.

Don't forget a mortar and pestle to pulverize potassium bromide lumps. I mixed my own D-94 and D-95 to develop 16mm 7266 for the best results so far.

Well, there's always caffenol...