Unicolor Motorized Base & Drum

bobwysiwyg · Oct 5, 2009

I have a friend who mentioned he had some old photo equip. his dad used at one time. Among the items was a Unicolor motorized base and a tube/drum of some sort. The base works. I thought, hmm, maybe I can do something with this to do just a couple of sheets of 4x5 at a time. I did some browsing re: Unicolor, and it appears there might be a cap or plug missing for the drum. One end has a funnel-like opening that appears to be light trapped and the other comes to a flat cone like shape with small holes in it. I'm thinking the funnel end is for filling and the other for emptying??? In any event, anyone know where I can find the cap/plug or have a suggestion for a work-around?

SMBooth · Oct 5, 2009

Have you got a photo, my unicolor only opens at one end, my paterson drum opens at both.

glbeas · Oct 5, 2009

What you have is complete. It's light tight as is. Theres no ribs to hold a 4x5 sheet in place so I'm not sure how you can make it work. Experiment some and see what comes of it.

bobwysiwyg · Oct 5, 2009

The tube/drum has a removable cap on only one end. I tried pouring water in the funnel (removable) end and all it did was pour out the other so I assumed it must have some sort of cap to use while filling. From research I gathered the drum was for prints, but I was thinking it could still be used for two sheets side-by-side with a round spring separator to keep them apart. Here are some pics. IMG 0199, on left, is the removable cap end.

nickandre · Oct 5, 2009

I used a drum that had a funnel so you poured the solution in, rolled it, and when you picked it up again it drained out the bottom. It was for paper processing one shot chemistry.

Mike Wilde · Oct 6, 2009

The colour drums usally used on the likes of 70mL of chemistry for an 8x10 of paper. Ususally there was a cup under the funnel that held the small volume. Turn the roll on its side, and start timing. Turn drum up again at end and the small volume runs out of the drain holes.

The Paterson tubes that I have has a plastic disc with a hole in the middle that goes over the end of the tube before the drain bottom is pushed on to make the light trap to cover the actual drain holes, and to let the tube hold larger volumes of warm up and wash water. Try making your own out of an ice cream container lid that you leave in a colour bleach solution, etc. to turn it dark/black. .

Nick Zentena · Oct 6, 2009

The motor will use quite a few other drums. A jobo 2551 or bigger for example. Can be found used. Plug the motor into a timer like the Gralab 300 and you've got most of an automated setup.

rmolson · Oct 6, 2009

I have and use a Unicolor drum and motor base and that is definately not a Unicolor drum

bobwysiwyg · Oct 6, 2009

Nick Zentena said:
The motor will use quite a few other drums. A jobo 2551 or bigger for example. Can be found used. Plug the motor into a timer like the Gralab 300 and you've got most of an automated setup.

Great idea on the timer. I have a Gralab and will give it a try once I sort out the drum issue. Thanks.

bobwysiwyg · Oct 6, 2009

rmolson said:
I have and use a Unicolor drum and motor base and that is definately not a Unicolor drum

Thanks, that helps.. sort of.

MattKing · Oct 6, 2009

bobwysiwyg said:
Thanks, that helps.. sort of.

If you post a photo of the side of the drum, showing markings, we may be able to identify it.

I have Cibachrome drums, Beseler drums, Unicolour drums (and maybe there are others in there too) and they are all slightly different.

If they weren't so large and difficult to ship, I'd offer a few of them up here.

Matt

bobwysiwyg · Oct 6, 2009

Sadly, after close inspection, not a single mark anywhere on the drum, inside, outside.

Whiteymorange · Oct 6, 2009

I think what you have is another set-up for color processing, as Mike Wilde describes. Mine says Cibachrome Mark II Color Processing Drum and is marketed by Ilford. You pour the chemistry in the funnel end and roll it around. When you tip it up to change to the next step of the process, the old stuff runs out as you pour the next stuff in. I haven't tried mine yet, but it seems to be an interesting, if sloppy, way to process large sheets. Mine is large enough for 11x14. My Unicolor drums won't do anything larger than 8x10.

One of the advantages of the Unicolor drum, and its Beseler brothers, is that during the time when you are adding chemistry the film, or paper, is not immersed in the fluid but comes in contact with it only when the motor is restarted. This system seems to simply flood the paper when you tip it down to place it on the motor. I don't know if it makes a difference in the long run, but I like being able to take my time with the chemistry changes and not spill the stuff all over the place.

DLawson · Oct 6, 2009

bobwysiwyg said:
Sadly, after close inspection, not a single mark anywhere on the drum, inside, outside.

The picture looks somewhat like a tube that I got recently. It also has no markings and seems to hold about a 5x7. The end cap, funnel, etc. design of that one is very similar to the Cibachrome drums that were in the same load of goodies.

Unicolor Motorized Base & Drum

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Unicolor Motorized Base & Drum

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