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Mebbe you should invest in a single 35mm tank if you want to save chems. It's convenient for using only 8oz per roll.
Rick A
Argentum aevum
BTW: the big kid in my avatar is my hero, my son, who proudly serves us in the Navy. "SALUTE"
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You can use the tank half filled and an empty 35mm reel on top, but the effects of agitation will differ from the single roll tanks, so it will be hard to maintain the same level of consistency that using one roll tanks for single rolls and two roll tanks for two rolls.
And your tank will leak - maybe a tiny amount, maybe a bit more - but there will be at least a little.
I think the leak shows up more than with the black plastic tanks  .
Matt
“Photography is a complex and fluid medium, and its many factors are not applied in simple sequence. Rather, the process may be likened to the art of the juggler in keeping many balls in the air at one time!”
Ansel Adams, from the introduction to The Negative - The New Ansel Adams Photography Series / Book 2
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Send me the price of postage and I'll send you a film loader for SS reels. It even has a built in cassette opener.
Rick A
Argentum aevum
BTW: the big kid in my avatar is my hero, my son, who proudly serves us in the Navy. "SALUTE"
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 Originally Posted by altair
Do you have any tips for an SS newbie?
Yep...three things:
1. Use your thumbnail to open the cassette.
2. Make sure that the reel is facing the correct way when you begin to feed the film into it. Practice in daylight with scrap film, if need be. (I get them backwards all the time, if I'm not paying attention).
3. Totally unspool your film into a separate coil (I let it wrap around my pinky finger) and cut the spool free before you start feeding it onto the reel. This also reverses the film on itself, which places the tightest curl inwards to the tightest part of the steel reel. It makes loading the reel much simpler.
Hope that helps...if you were already doing all of those things, then just practice a lot!
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Keep your fingers close to the reel. I feed between my thumb and first finger with them resting right against the reel, holding the film with my two back fingers and the base of my thumg. Don't force anything, push anything. LET the film feed itself as you turn the reel. Only use your fingers to keep the film going into the reel symmetrically--both sides at the same angle/level to the center, and squeeze the film enough that it is curved so that it doesn't hang up on the outside coils, but only flattens out where it enters its position on the reel. Trying to make the film go in doesn't help anything; let the reel suck the film from your fingers, as you turn the reel. It's most important to keep the sides of the film level with each other as they go into the reel, and keep it curved sideways.
For agitation, if you're going to fill the tank only half way, spend more time rolling the tank gently on it's side, less time inverting. One inversion, gently, and some rolling, that's all.
Last edited by mdarnton; 01-27-2012 at 06:58 PM. Click to view previous post history.
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Find a cupboard or other room you can make fully dark, and load there.
That way you can hear the film as you load - the auditory clues are really helpful.
Remember, you can load va tank and then develop the film the following day.
Matt
“Photography is a complex and fluid medium, and its many factors are not applied in simple sequence. Rather, the process may be likened to the art of the juggler in keeping many balls in the air at one time!”
Ansel Adams, from the introduction to The Negative - The New Ansel Adams Photography Series / Book 2
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These so called slip tops never are leak free. I use a black plastic lid with stanless tanks. That type lid is 98% leak free.
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I just obtained a SS tank on ebay. The filler cap is way too loose. I used to have another SS tank years ago, and the filler cap was nice and snug. I'm just wondering if I was sold a tank with the wrong filler cap.
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Originally Posted by altair
Thank you. I think the lid is original to the tank, as 'Simmons-Omega' is also written on the top of the cap. I'm wondering though...since leakage seems to be a major problem, what if I agitate not by inversion by a gentle swaying motion from side to side? I used to do this with my Paterson plastic tanks, as it sometimes leaks too. Hated getting developer & fixer on my hands so much that I used that agitation method instead. Worked fine & I didn't notice any adverse effects on my negatives. What do you think?
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Ditto what Rich et all have said. And they almost all leak. And if yours is marked Simmon-Omega, it is far from new. Some people do the rock three times and swirl gently. If that worked for you with plastic, it shall work for you with this old fellow. I know of no way to tighten up the interior of a lid that is loose. The big rubber band outside is an help. MaInly just work over the sink and get used to solution running down your arm. LOL
John, Mount Vernon, Virginia USA
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Adv Reply
in the meantime, I'll take the risk & go ahead using enough solution only to cover one of the 2 reels inside my tank. Hopefully it will turn out ok. I've been doing the same thing ( using just enough solution for 1 reel in a 2 reel tank) with my Paterson plastic tanks & so far haven't seen any adverse affects.
