What is cryptic about that?
Either Jobo or the one importing them makes them fit for US voltage.
Do they have a website? Are their products comparable to Jobos?
Patterson drums and reels work quite well on a rotaton direction reversing base. Besseler in my case
I picked up a used PhotoTherm SSK-8 in excellent condition a few months ago for $500 on ebay, so they do come up for sale used from time to time.
Although it's got a program for B&W, I don't think it will replace the traditional agitation and semi-stand development I'm used to for 35/120 anytime soon.
... you can press "start" and come back when it's time to hang up your processed film. I especially like not having to worry about a tempering bath.
PhotoTherm telephone support was excellent, and they can burn new program chips for you if the standard programs don't suit.
I've got an old Color by beseler unit (single direction). The drums it came with were for 8x10, and smaller prints and negatives. The only problem is they spin too fast, I tried to slow them down with a 5amp motor speed controller, the only problem is the controller killed the motor torque, and the unit kept stalling. My new idea is to rig a timer with an adj. interval timer, say several fixed setting of 5,10,15,20,25,30 secs every minute, it would turn the unit on for agitation.
You have aroused my interest in the Sidekick. I got mine a few years back when a local one hour got put out of business by WalMart, and it's been sitting on a shelf ever since. I'm wondering, do you HAVE to process bw at 75° or can they make a chip that allows a cooler temperature? I believe that mine has BW programs for HC110, which I don't often use in my own work.
With B&W, I've got more interested in using steel cans again rather than processing machines but it is tempting to run color. I've been avoiding that for a Looooong time now. But it's got to the point where, if you want color, doing it yourself may well be the best option. I've done so much of it, that it is real hard to look at it as something new and exciting.
For USD 100 Phototherm will burn a custom eeprom that does anything you want, different temps, different default times, different this that and the other. If you wanted to run at 68F (20C) instead of the default 75F (24C) it's a simple change for them. I don't do that because the local environment usually means I'd have to refrigerate *MORE* to get down to lower temperatures.
Another trick I've seen on one of the machines I picked up is simply to lie to the temperature calibration routine. If you want it to run at 20C instead of 24C, then crank down the temperature during calibration so that you get the target during processing. This, however, wonks out the machine for color. If you need both, then you'd need a custom eeprom.
Phototherm already has lots of profiles they can ship without actually doing any programming other than burning the chip. Their claim, untest by me but I have no reason to doubt, is that they can provide a chip that does anything except K-14. I personally haven't done anything except use the factory default programs. You can change the process times at the start of a run, so I set my development time before I push start to meet my needs. The B&W factory defaults are set up for T-Max developer, and for Plus-X, Tri-X, T-max 100, 400, and 3200 film. As I use DD-X for almost everything, and mostly Ilford film, I have to set the time every run. Probably takes an extra 20-30 seconds.
The caveat with custom chips is that if you want something complicated, you may have to give up something else. The older machines have some limits.
For example, if you have an older processor (FPx, SK-4) then if you want six step E-6 instead of the factory default 3 step then you must choose to delete either C-41 or B&W. The newer machines, (SSK-x) have more capacity and are not as limited.
If your machine has the chemical suctions tubes on the back in a straight line, then it cannot do six step E6 without giving up another process because there just aren't enough pipes to handle it. If, on the other hand, the suction tubes are arranged in a circle it has the newer rotary selector valve, which has enough lines to handle everything.
I loved my Jobo's but I am afraid their days are numbered .
Fixing a lift arm on any of the larger units are very problematic and costly, therefore the used market is only a short term fix. Each arm on a Jobo only has a number of lifts give or take a few thousand and they are toast.
I have replaced 4 lift arms , but now they are very costly to maintain even with the lost market of film , I am paranoid of their reliability these days.
On top of this , the owner assured me that setting up for Pyro runs is a no brainer and was very positive that custom programs would be no problem.
One thing to note I am interested in purchasing two NEW units that are custom to our needs and when all said and done the units will not be cheap .
My satisfaction will come in the reality of two brand new units with support.
I've not been a jobo user for long; always done it by hand, but since I ended up with stuff from that one hour's demise, I have one. I have been rather favorably impressed with their design but unfavorably impressed with their construction. They seem very cheaply built. By comparison, the sidekick seems like a tank (not a processing device; a military armored vehicle). It is great that they are still around and that there is enough of a market to support them.
We've lost Wing Lynch, too. I never got to use their processors, but the temp control was a gift from the processor god. I have installed five of them in student labs and managed to pick one up for myself.
...
I haven't ever had a chance to take one apart, but my impression is that it's really just a pretty common industrial PID control mechanism. Conceptually they aren't hard to make, but usually expensive since you want them to be forklift proof. If you wrapped the same thing in a less expensive package it would still work just as well.
MB
What developer are you using and why do you think that you need a rotary processor? Is it for convenience, consistency or to save on the amount of processing solutions required? I use a Jobo CPA2 with the Jobo Lift accessory for sheet-films although 35mm and 120 is done by inversion.I'm experimenting with a developer that requires long development times and I've decided I need to finally get a rotary processor. I want something simple and cheap, if that's possible. Does anyone have any recommendations? Do you have one you want to sell?
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