Using Household Chemicals for Developers

[WolfTales]

Can anyone recommend any household chemicals to use as developers... curious

Thanks

 

[removed account4]

hi wolfetales

there are a few of us who use instant coffee as a film
and paper developer ...

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

also ... check out this thread:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

have fun!

john

 

[jim appleyard]

There's also Vitamin C (but be careful which form you use) and urine (not the most pleasant of devs) .

A search here will stear you toward the right Vit. C.

You can get sodium carbonate at the grocery store as Arm & Hammer Washing soda
and borax (oh, NO!!!) as 20 Mule Team Borax. Now, you use what you want, but there is a heated thread here about about the use of 20 MTB.

Good luck!

 

[WolfTales]

So if the caffinol acts as the reducer, does that mean it reduces the silver halide into a silver sulfide? and then that gets washed away?

What does the activator (soda wash) activate?

Thanks so much!

 

[gainer]

There are also formulas using Tylenol. Its base is p-aminophenol. When you are through removing the bits that are not p-aminophenol, you need only sulfite and lye to make Rodinal.

 

[BradS]

Sodium Carbonate from the pool chemical isle and Sodium Hydroxide from the drain clearing isle of the local hardware store. Twenty Mule team borax from the laudry detergent isle of the grocery store.

Sodium carbonate can also be had by "baking" baking soda in the oven at 350F for an hour - stir every ten minutes or so.


(EDIT) Oh, but...none of these will develop film by themselves. They are used in many film developers however.

 

[luxikon]

What is the equivalent weight of sodium carbonate sicc. for 78.0gr. sodium carbonate monohydrate? Who can give me the conversion factor?

 

[Anon Ymous]

Sodium Carbonate is Na2CO3, so it's molecular weight is 106g. Water's (H20) molecular weight is 18, so the monohydrate is 124. 124/106~=1,17, therefore, you'll need 17% more if using the monohydrate. Accordingly, you'll need 85% of what is needed for monohydrated form when using the anhydrous form.

 

[RobertV]

The household Soda in the Netherlands I am using is decahydrate.
So:

1 mol Na2CO3 = 106g
1 mol Na2CO3 . 10 . H2O = 286g

Instead of 5g Sodiumcarbonate sicc I am using Soda:
286/106 * 5g = 13,49g Soda (thanks to Anon corrected calculation)

A cheap and easy equivalent in the Beutler formula.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Hello Robert,

I think you made a mistake there. First things first, so the atomic weights are: Na 23, C 12, O 16, H 1. So, that gives us Na2 (2x23) C (1x12) O3 (3x16) = 106 (molecular weight). So, 1 mol of Na2CO3 is 106g. The molecular weight of water is 18. Since the anhydrous form is 106g/mol, the monohydrate is 106+18=124g. The decahydrate would be 106+(10x18)=286g.

Anhydrous -> Monohydrated: 124/106=1,17 multiplication factor
Anhydrous -> Decahydrated: 286/106=2,69 multiplication factor

Monohydrated -> Anhydrous 106/124=0,85 multiplication factor
Decahydrated -> Anhydrous 106/286=0,37 multiplication factor

 

[RobertV]

I think you're right. I must have picked up somewhere the wrong moluculair weight from Sodiumcarbonate (Na2CO3).