P. J. Alling wrote: > Equipment for developing B&W film in your kitchen or bathroom sink. > (With commentary). > > 1. Someplace dark to move film around, (I use a closet after midnight, > but I'm thinking of investing in a film changing bag). > > 2. Film developing tank, (I prefer stainless steel with PVC plastic > tops, but almost any will do). > > 3. Reels to match the tank, and your film format. (I prefer Kinderman, > no longer available new as far as I know, but their optional automatic > film loaders make loading the reels a snap, not that it's difficult to > do otherwise, but it does take practice.). If you're using stainless > steel, as opposed to plastic watch out for slightly bent reels, they can > make film loading impossible, If you're using plastic, keep the reels > scrupulously clean and dry before each use for the same reason). > > 4. Minimum three bottles for working solutions. One for Fixer, one for > Stop, one for Developer). You can skip the stop bath, and just rinse the > film with water, but it's cheap and Ilford produces a citric acid > version that's very environmentally benign. You can use a varsity of > other chemicals as well to make your live easier. I usually treat my > film with Kodak photo flo, (really just a very concentrated detergent, > which improves chances that the film will dry spot free). Never made a > stock or working solution. an old cap from a bottle that takes a screw > on medicine dropper will work fine as a measure. About 1/2 a cap full is > enough to treat 1-4 35mm or 1-2 120 rolls. There were at one time > various fast film drying agents available, maybe there still are, DON"T > USE THEM. There were also a number of Hypo Clearing agents to reduce > washing time and water use, but I haven't seen any of them in years. > > 5. One or Two graduated cylinders for measurement, (you can get away > with using a measuring cup depending on the chemicals you use, but you > can usually find plastic photo graduates inexpensively, some shops are > figuratively speaking giving them away). > > 5. An immersible thermometric, with temperatures in 1/2 degrees. showing > the range from 60° F. ~15.5° C to 80° F ~26.5° C. > > 6.) Some kind of timer. (I've been using my watch, a dedicated timer is > nice but not necessary, if you're capable of enough organization to have > gotten this far a watch is all you need). > > That's all you really need. If you're using chemicals that need to be > mixed to a stock solution, you'll need more bottles but the basics are > very simple. > > > >
I use plastic reels. Both of the steel reels I bought were bent before I ever touched them. As for graduated cylinders, I have two that will hold more than enough chemical to process two rolls at a time. I also have two clear Rubbermaid pitchers that I've marked for my commonly used measurements. I fill them with developer, stop bath, fixer, and clearing agent. First up is loading the reels and putting them in the tank. I do this in a changing bag. Then the developer goes in. I usually agitate constantly for about 30 seconds and then 5 seconds every 30 seconds for the remaining development time. The developer goes down the drain. Stop bath goes in for about 30 or 45 seconds and then back into the bottle. I use Indicator Stop Bath. The "Indicator" part means that when it's depleted it starts to turn from yellow to purple. Stop bath lasts forever, it seems. I purchased a bottle of the stuff a little over two years ago and still have 3/4 of it left. Next is fixer. Depending on the film and the age of the fixer, it usually takes around 5 minutes. This goes back into the bottle, too. As the fixer depletes it will take longer to clear the film. So keep an eye on it. There are quite a few methods for determining fixer strength. When the fixer takes more than 10 minutes I dump the bottle and mix up another gallon. My only exception is with T-grain films. Any fixer I use to clear T-Max or Delta films goes right down the drain. Those films deplete the fixer more than traditional black and white, such as HP5 or Plus-X. Rinse. I fill the tank with water and invert it five or 6 times, then dump it. Clearing agent. This only takes a minute or two. It goes down the drain. Rinse. When I got back into development a couple years ago I did things by the book. I ran a narrow funnel down the center of the dev tank and flushed the film with continuously running water for a long time. Any more, I use Ilford's method. Fill the tank with water, invert five times, and dump. Fill it again. Invert 10 times and dump. Fill it a third time. Invert 15 or 20 times and dump. It's faster, uses less water, and so far I haven't noticed any problems with this method. Open the tank and slowly pour your rinse agent into the center until the reels are just covered. Let it sit for a minute or so and then slowly pour it back into the bottle. (I mix up a quarter gallon working solution.) Extract the film from the reels and using very wet fingers (I dip mine in the Photoflo) squeegee them off. Hang them up to dry. You can buy film clips for hanging your film. I use clothes pins. When we had a house with two bathrooms I used to hang them in the shower. But first I'd run the shower on hot to get the bathroom steamy. This takes the dust out of the air. You can check if they're dry by touching the bottom of the hanging film. If it feels even the slightest bit tacky, leave it up for a while longer. When the bottom feels completely dry you can take them down, cut them into strips and sleeve them. -- Scott Loveless http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
