Xray, Cine film Fixer

mesantacruz · Nov 12, 2013

just a quick question hopefully. Now there's been other threads which have asked, but there isn't much feedback. While what i have read is that Xray fixers are to strong, not much else is mentioned.
specifically this fixer from this vendor, which someone else mentioned in another thread but no follow up, could one just further dilute, say for use with paper?

http://www.cxsonline.com/text/detailpage.tmpl?command=showpage&sn=126226&sku=4010F&cart=1376358363963235&location=1002

and while the links to the msds, seem to be broken there are current msds for what i'm guessing is the same fixer.

http://www.wmi-t2.com/msds/msds-fixers/

While economy is only part of the reason,
i also want to know why it would not work as a paper fixer if it doesn't?

Thanks ahead of time for your help in answering my questions

polyglot · Nov 12, 2013

Their T2 looks like plain old B&W rapid fixer. Part A is fixer, Part B is hardener which you probably don't want to use because it will make your washing times very long and require the use of hypo clearing agent, though it might help if you tend to use soft (from old factories in eastern Europe) film emulsions. You definitely don't want to include the Part B/hardener when fixing paper.

The MDX and Cine fixers are fixer+hardener therefore mostly undesirable. Premixes are silly because you're paying to ship a bunch of water in order to avoid spending 2 minutes diluting it yourself.

If you can buy just the T2 fixer and use that at about 1+4 dilution, I would expect it to be fine for both film and paper. You will need to measure the clearing time as I suspect that it's slightly weaker (45% vs 60%+) than Ilford Rapid, or just go a bit longer in your fixing.

mesantacruz · Nov 12, 2013

Thank you! much appreciated.

Wayne · Nov 12, 2013

There are a lot of people (well, some) shooting x-ray film photographically and none use any special fixers that I've heard of. So I suspect Poly is right, its nothing special (I didn't visit the link)

Xmas · Nov 13, 2013

It is probably cheaper to buy

safety goggles
hypo powder
acetic acid
sodium sulphite and meta
and mini scale/balance like drug dealers use
and brew your own stop, fix and eliminator

you still get archival quality

and can make up the dev from the raw chems if you want

people used to use measures for the fix powder etc and a precision balance for dev the micro balance has changed all that

but I'll give you it is a digital balance and this is APUG oops

ic-racer · Nov 13, 2013

I looked at the site and can't see anywhere where one can buy the products. There are no prices. Why not use the gallon jugs of 'photography' fixer that sell for $23 to $28 from vendors like Freestyle.

mesantacruz · Nov 13, 2013

ic-racer,

i did end up buying arista fixer note it makes 4 gal or 9 gal, NOT 6
By far the cheapest liquid fixer for the price and promoted as such.

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/16275-Arista-Universal-Liquid-Rapid-Fixer-to-Make-6-Gallons

for 2 gallons (concentrate) it came out to $42.xx including S/H
i would have gone for claytons, but S/H is $16 dollars itself.

,x-ray/cine film fixer (white mountain) IS cheaper. (1:4 makes 2x5gal, 1:9 makes 2X10gal).

http://www.cxsonline.com/searchfiles/4010F.tmpl

2 gallons concentrate (w/ optional hardener) $32.xx including S/H... to either california or new york (you can check, before inputing check-out personal info).

X-mas thanks, (working in the laundry/boiler room, i'd rather not at this time, but sure will when that's the only option)

but $32/$42 (depending) for 20 gallons of working solution is kinda hard to beat.

Chris Lange · Nov 13, 2013

I have a big box of C41 fixer concentrate that i use for everything. something like twelve 800ml bottles that I dilute to make a gallon of fix each time I need new stuff.

Non hardening, rapid, fairly cheap, easy to handle, and odorless.

polyglot · Nov 13, 2013

The first link in the original post actually points to the second link. If you copy and paste the link-text, you get the product-sales page. Way cheaper than Ilford ($51 for 5L last week when I restocked), but not surprising.

Buying photo-grade ammonium thiosulfate, at least in Australia, costs about 3-5x as much as paying for Ilford Hypam.

Xray, Cine film Fixer

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