would it be worth it to build a film washing tube?

[phildo]

does anybody have experience building thier own film washing tubes?

as things go with photography, even the simplest devices are outrageously marked up because of its association with image emulsification. so i guess instead of going out and buying some equipment, some of it could be built with a trip to the hardware store and some elbow grease.

anyhow, i was looking at film washing tubes online and find that most of them are painfully expensive, despite their simple design. so i got to thinking about what building a filmwashing tube would involve, wether i'd get better results from one i'd buy, etc. this also lead me to think about building materials.

most film washers i've used were made of something that looked like acrylic, but i haven't seen any piping or tubing like that at the home depot, so i'm not sure if i can manage to get some. so, i was wondering if pvc piping would do the trick. i heard somewhere that pvc pipe was inappropriate for water because that it was in some way toxic. i guess i'm wondering if building a film washer built from pvc would mess me up in getting archival quality negatives. what other alternatives are there?

 

[Donald Miller]

PVC is a perfectly good material to use. Another material is ABS plastic. PVC is recognized as suitable for potable water supplies.

 

[raucousimages]

I made one from a stainless steel film tank. I drilled a hole in the side at the bottom and inserted a piece of steel brake tubing so one end was in the dead center and the other end stuck out about one inch then brazed it in place.

 

[david b]

why not just follow the Ilford Method of washing film and save time. money and water?

 

[SuzanneR]

Search the APUG archives, I think there was a thread about building one with PVC piping. The Ilford method works pretty well, too!

 

[allen curtis]

Are you washing sheet film or roll film? I can e-mail you a photo of my roll film washer. I've used the first I made for 18 years, until me son broke it. The second one is about the same. It costs about $12 to make.

 

[allen curtis]

Are you washing sheet film or roll film? I can e-mail you a photo of my roll film washer. I've used the first I made for 18 years, until my son broke it. The second one is about the same. It costs about $12 to make.

 

[phildo]

Are you washing sheet film or roll film? I can e-mail you a photo of my roll film washer. I've used the first I made for 18 years, until my son broke it. The second one is about the same. It costs about $12 to make.

i haven't gotten into sheet film, yet, but that's not to say that it's not in the forseeable future.

feel free to send or post any pictures. i welcome any and all ideas

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

The Ilford fill and dump method is the most efficient film and paper washing method, it yields archival results (per residual hypo testing) with minimum water use.

You can use almost anything for a washing tank with this method - a piece of ABS pipe with an end cap comes to mind.

 

[Saganich]

For washing 35mm and 120 roll film the best method is washing, soaking and dumping, and washing so you don't need to buy anything just use your tanks.

Fill tank agitate vigerously for 30 seconds, dump and repeate 6 times.
Fill tank, let sit 5 minutes, dump and repeat 6 times.
Fill tank agitate vigerously for 30 seconds, dump and repeat 6 times.

Works a hell of alot better then any contraption. For the first time I get all the stain out of my TriX.

 

[david b]

So Chris, you are suggesting 18 tanks of water?

Ilford says 3 tanks.
First tankful- agitate 10 times then dump.
Second tankful - agitate 20 times then dump
Third tankful - agitate 40 times then dump

I use this and a 5 minute soak at the end. Never had a problem.

 

[Les McLean]

The Ilford fill and dump method has served me well for something like 20 years, saves water and takes no more than 10 minutes to complete. If you are not familiar with the method the following may help:

Prepare sufficient water at 20c for 5 changes.
After fixing fill tank with plain water and invert 5 times, pour away.
Repeat the above but invert 10, 20, 10, and finally 5 times.
The wash is now complete