Tips wanted for processing odd widths of film

Bob Carnie · Jul 29, 2011

Exactly what a Paris lab did except they stood over the vat and dipped the roll into the vat with weight on bottom.
Master tech would do the first couple of minutes.
then pass backwards to second techs handling a soft or hard dev.
Second techs would finish off to Master tech time and correct bath
then pass to stop tech, then pass to fix tech.
Washing would go to much larger vats.

Photo Engineer said:
Indeed, Kodak sold aprons for each size of popular film so that the dimples in the edges would only touch the edge of a given size.

At KRL, we often were faced with processing long lengths of odd widths of film. This is how we did it:

We got a large graduate cylinder (250 ml, 500 or 1L for example). We got a rod and hung a film clip on thee rod and then we hung the film, emulsion side out with both ends clipped to the rod, making a loop. We then took a "C" shaped metal weight and we hung it over the bottom of the film loop thereby reducing the apparent length by 1/2. So, 3 feet (about 1M) of film was reduced to 1.5 feet which fit in a 500 ml graduate very handily.

Agitation was done by lift and drain using the metal rod with the clip attached.

After the Photo Flo step, we removed the weight and unclipped one end to hang the film up to dry.

Try it, it works. And this reminds me that Bill Troop and I were discussing a book or a series of articles on handy darkroom tips like this that I learned at EK.

PE

Diapositivo · Jul 29, 2011

This insertion on eBay seems to sell Hewes 35mm reels for Jobo 1500 tanks, but if you read the fine print, it also says:

They are available in various sizes for use with main film formats, but we are always pleased to quote on special made-to-order spirals to suit your particular needs

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hewes-Steel-Spiral-35mm-1-core-Jobo-1500-/290592304341

Fabrizio

removed account4 · Jul 29, 2011

you could always get a long tank or a long tube and get a smaller pipe to fit inside it.
secure one end of the film and wind it around the pipe at an angle, and secure it to the other end.
have a handle so you can raise lower the inserted pipe ... kind of like what ro and bob were talking about
but use a tube as your long tank ...
raising and lowering can be tricky because too much = over agitation, and too little = semi stand ...

frobozz · Jul 29, 2011

Diapositivo said:
This insertion on eBay seems to sell Hewes 35mm reels for Jobo 1500 tanks, but if you read the fine print, it also says:

They are available in various sizes for use with main film formats, but we are always pleased to quote on special made-to-order spirals to suit your particular needs

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hewes-Steel-Spiral-35mm-1-core-Jobo-1500-/290592304341

Fabrizio

I think that's just copied from Hewes' website, so you'd need to contact them, not that particular ebay seller. Now if only Hewes would make tanks to fit their long 35mm reels... or if they had made them a hair smaller to fit in the mid-size Nikor long reel tanks, grrrrr....

Ah yes, go here:

http://www.hewes.co.uk/

Then click on "Products" then "Stainless Steel Spirals"

Duncan

SkipA · Jul 29, 2011

jnanian said:
you could always get a long tank or a long tube and get a smaller pipe to fit inside it.
secure one end of the film and wind it around the pipe at an angle, and secure it to the other end.
have a handle so you can raise lower the inserted pipe ... kind of like what ro and bob were talking about
but use a tube as your long tank ...
raising and lowering can be tricky because too much = over agitation, and too little = semi stand ...

Don't raise and lower. Just twist and turn.

nickrapak · Jul 29, 2011

The Yankee tanks are easy to make adjustable for sizes between 120 and 16mm. Since the size is adjusted by means of a simple spring in the center, you just need to adjust the reel to the height you need, and cut a notch in the center spindle for the spring to fall in to. A Dremel tool works well for this.

Murray Kelly · Jul 30, 2011

I have an oldish Patterson tank here that has the adjustable clipping section of the top spiral above the top spiral with the grooves underneath. This means you can push the two together as close as you want - it will even go down to Minox width. The working distance is governed by grooves at the appropriate places on the central tube. For 16mm I merely had to cut/file a groove on the central tube at the right place and it works fine. I know someone who has done this for the Advantix films he uses.

Most other tanks I've seen have the clipping mechanism between the spirals and it wouldn't be nearly so easy to change..

cmacd123 · Jul 31, 2011

The old commercial labs almost always were set up for a "dip and dunk" system. film clipped to a holder, and sometimes folded in eh middle as in Ron's Graduated cylinder method. Those machines would automatically lift the film every minute and lower it on the next station. if the development time was 5 minutes, the developing tank would have 5 stations, the next cycle "dunking" the film in stop bath. The commercial tanks were long enough to take a regular roll of 120 or perhaps 116.

If your film was relatively short, You could just make up a square wooden tank, lined with plastic and drape your film from the top. A cover would allow you to stay in the light between steps.

Tips wanted for processing odd widths of film

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