XTOL part B

[white.elephant]

Hello All

I just bought an easel on ebay and the gent selling the easel threw in a sealed bag of Xtol part 'A'. He misplaced the part 'B'.

Could I make up the part B so I could mix up the Xtol? What chemicals would I need?

Thanks

 

[thisismyname09]

from http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/xtol/ :

Part A:
Sodium sulfite
Sodium metaborate, tetrahydrate
Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid pentasodium salt
4-hydroxymethyl-4-methyl-1-phenyl-3-pyrazolidinone
Part B:
Sodium sulfite
Sodium isoascorbate
Sodium metabisulfite

I can't find the MSDS for xtol, but the formula for mytol (essentially the same thing) lists 85g sodium sulfite, 12g sodium ascorbate, 3g sodium metabisulfite. The problem would be figuring out how much sulfite is in the part A, since the total amount seems to be split between part A and B. sodium isoascorbate should substitute weight for weight with normal sodium ascorbate, but the weight will be different if you use ascorbic acid.

 

[Jordan]

sodium isoascorbate should substitute weight for weight with normal sodium ascorbate, but the weight will be different if you use ascorbic acid.

Using ascorbic acid in place of ascorbate will change the pH of the developer substantially, so in addition to compensating for the difference in molecular weights, you will need to titrate back to the XTOL target pH with extra sodium metaborate.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Film is expensive both in cost and time spent in exposing it. I believe that it is a foolish economy in any attempt to create a part B. The Xtol MSDS is misleading in that there are other ingredients in part B which don't not have to be listed because they are present in small amounts. Manufactures love this loophole to keep their formulations secret. Even though these ingredients are present in small amounts they're presence is required. Mytol is similar to Xtol but lacking these additional ingredients.

If you are interested in ascorbate developers then go to silvergrain.org for lots of information.

 

[martinhughesireland]

Just throw away the Part A you were given and go out and buy some proper Xtol... A great developer

 

[srs5694]

I tend to agree with the others, and here's another reason: IIRC, a couple of years ago Kodak adjusted precisely what went into Part A vs. Part B. Thus, even if you found a reference that gave you precise quantities for each part, it might apply to the version you don't have. Some time ago, I did find this Usenet post that claims to show the quantities of the various ingredients, based on Kodak patent data.

That said, if you wanted a cheap developer for some unimportant project and you happened to have the Part B ingredients on hand, you could probably get something workable by making some educated guesses. I wouldn't trust it to work like the "real thing," or even to work like a mix-it-yourself clone such as Mytol, but it would probably develop images. It might be useful for something like a classroom demonstration of film developing for school children or, with some modifications, to work as a print developer for a series of printing experiments. Bear in mind that the total cost for 5l of real XTOL is $9.95 at B&H. My (somewhat out of date) cost spreadsheet indicates that 5l worth of Part B, mixed from scratch, would come to about $3.90, so you'd be saving at most about $6 vs. ordering fresh XTOL.

 

[fotch]

Toss it, more trouble than its worth.

 

[Tim Gray]

Isn't XTOL like $10? Just buy it new.

 

[white.elephant]

Wow, guys, this wasn't about the cost but it was about the experience of putting it together. I use Xtol all the time, and I just thought I'd get my hands dirty and have some fun. Sorry I asked.