What is the maximum temperature to dry film?

[PicturEd]

Hello all, I'm new to this forum and have a question about drying film. I recently bought an old metal film drying cabinet (probably from the 1950's), but after trying it at home the circuit breaker popped. After removing the side panels inside the cabinet (where the air rises from the fan) I found very old wiring to the heating elements and one of the wires has burn marks. The rest of the parts are very old as well. I intent to remove all the hardware and replace it with modern parts. Now my question is, what is the maximum temperature to dry freshly developed film at best without damage? I mainly use 35mm and 120 Kodak Tri-X film. Anyone with experience? Many thanks!

 

[Rick A]

I never use heated air to dry my film, no need. I used to use a cabinet that only pumped filtered air, now I just hang my film in a corner of the dark room.

 

[Maris]

I once gave a film development demonstration in a hall in Blackall, Queensland. The film dried quickly and safely at 45 Celcius. That was the ambient temperature of the day.

 

[cramej]

I can't tell you what the temperature would be but the last time I had to dry film in a hurry in a drying cabinet, it curled horribly - like leaving-it-under-an-anvil-for-a-year-wouldn't-flatten-it curled. I worked in a lab at the time and that was probably the only time I ever saw the cabinet on "high". I would guess that the low temperature was in the 90-100* F range. Film still curled but not as bad.

 

[dpurdy]

I use a heater in my drying cabinet for roll and sheet film. I never measured how hot it gets but probably 100º F. I put a clothes pin on the bottom of the film rolls for weight and never get any curl.
Otherwise in my cabinet I can hang film in the evening and it is dry in the morning.

 

[MattKing]

I've worked with heated film dryers and with dryers that used air flow only. Mostly, I've allowed my film to hang and dry without the assist of a dryer.

The heated dryers were very rapid, but they tended to cause film to curl. I only tended to use the heat function (it could be turned off) when I was working to a deadline.

The air flow dryers were fairly quick, and didn't cause nearly as much curl.

And just hanging the film to dry works well as well.

Do you have the need for rapid drying?

Are you in a particularly humid environment?

 

[darkroommike]

I usually just hang the film in my cabinet without heat, and as you rewire your cabinet be aware there might be asbestos and mica insulation in the cabinet if it's really old.

 

[Luis-F-S]

I dry film & prints in my California Stainless drying cabinet using the fan only. Never used the heater, why chance it?

 

[mgb74]

With Tri-x, you could probably get away with 100 deg F without too much curl. But why? In our community darkroom drying cabinet (a large upright office cabinet with a 4" (approx) muffin fan blowing filtered air into the bottom, film will generally dry in 20-30 minutes.

 

[Arklatexian]

I never use heated air to dry my film, no need. I used to use a cabinet that only pumped filtered air, now I just hang my film in a corner of the dark room.

I agree with you on this. I built a film dryer, once, and found the addition of a heating element was a waste of time and money. Dry, filtered, unheated, air was all that was needed. I too now use a corner of the darkroom. The small airconditioner that cools the darkroom provides cool, dry, filtered air, summer and winter. I am careful about dust but that is part of having a darkroom......Regards!

 

[mshchem]

Kodak always said 110F. Unless you are in a rush don't blow air on it, heat it, squeegee it. IMHO this is a crazy thing to do. This is how Robert Capa's 35mm rolls of the D-day invasion got melted up. He was only able to save something like 7 or 8 frames.
I will give you a darn good idea get a good dehumidifier for your darkroom that will really help. Keeps everything safer. Lenses, bellows etc. Mildew is nasty. My 36 exposure strips of slide film are always dry in less than an hour at 70 F with dehumidifier running.
Best Regards Mike

 

[AgX]

...be aware there might be asbestos and mica insulation in the cabinet ...

Mica is not toxic.

 

[darkroommike]

Mica is not toxic.

http://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/1659.pdf

 

[Sirius Glass]

I dry my film in a shower at room temperature.

 

[joh]

Kodak always said 110F. Unless you are in a rush don't blow air on it, heat it, squeegee it. IMHO this is a crazy thing to do. This is how Robert Capa's 35mm rolls of the D-day invasion got melted up. He was only able to save something like 7 or 8 frames.
I will give you a darn good idea get a good dehumidifier for your darkroom that will really help. Keeps everything safer. Lenses, bellows etc. Mildew is nasty. My 36 exposure strips of slide film are always dry in less than an hour at 70 F with dehumidifier running.
Best Regards Mike

I buyed a dehumidifier recently, cause the humidity in my darkroom was way to high and I'm more than impressed what it can do for drying films and prints!

 

[AgX]

http://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/1659.pdf

That is the standard hazard (Pneumoconiosis/mineworkers-disease) from practically all minerals.
The special characteristic of Mica even is its layering, it easy break into flakes, not producing dust at normal handling.

 

[PicturEd]

Wow..!!! Thanks a lot gentlemen, lots of useful information. I will gett rid of the heating elements and run the cabinet on the fan only. I will modify the cabinet with dust filters to keep it all as clean as possible inside. That dehummer sounds like a good idea too since humidity can be quite high here in the Netherlands.

 

[chuck94022]

If you have a spare bathroom, you can use it as your film drying "cabinet". I just have a line over the tub from which I hang my film clips. Running the shower beforehand can reduce dust if that's a problem in your area. I used to have a cabinet, but found it to be superfluous.

 

[Hilo]

I could be wrong but for more than 40 years I have believed that large temperature differences between baths will affect the grain, or emulsion of the film. I have always seen drying wet film as a part of that reasoning.

In other words: avoid large temperature differences while the film is wet.

I agree with all the posts here when it comes to drying film at room temperature. Unless you have a specific reason to be fast. The beauty of analogue are all the different steps and the passage of time in between them!

 

[Agulliver]

I dry my film in the shower, by attaching the lead end to the shower rail and a weight to the tail end, so it hopefully dries without curling or crinkling. The weight is a proper weighted film clip, whereas I use a clothes peg on the shower rail as the film clip is not large enough.

My shower rail is over a full sized bath tub, so the film hangs above the tub and drips into it. Even a 40 exposure 35mm roll doesn't quite come to the rim of the tub. Sometimes I put a fan heater in the bath to speed things up and set it to heat the room to 35-40 centigrade. I do not have it blow onto the film itself. This does speed up drying considerably.

A long while ago I tried to speed dying up by gently blowing a hair dryer onto film and found that while it did dry....it was in danger of beginning to melt and would tend to curl and crinkle. Not a good idea.

On rare occasions when I have done 50' spools of 16mm or 8mm motion picture films, I suspend the spiral reel over the bath tub on a clothes drying rack and again use the heater. Drying time is considerably longer but the film dries well.

 

[MattKing]

I have a second shower rail over the centre line of our tub, and I use these handy clips (found at my local Dollar Store):

 

[Wallendo]

Wow..!!! Thanks a lot gentlemen, lots of useful information. I will gett rid of the heating elements and run the cabinet on the fan only. I will modify the cabinet with dust filters to keep it all as clean as possible inside. That dehummer sounds like a good idea too since humidity can be quite high here in the Netherlands.

Try it without a dehumidifier first. When I dry film in my basement (mostly a finished basement), I have to run the shower a while to humidify the air to prevent TX400 from curling into a straw. I actually live in a humid climate, but the HVAC system for the basement dries the air out significantly