large volume processing

[mouren]

What I'm talking about is using plastic reels double loaded (like Steve mentioned), so you have only two reels each holding two rolls of film. Fill/Drain time is significantly reduced from the really tall 4 reel tanks. Especially the stainless 4 reel tanks. But the method you mention of filling the tank, then dropping in the loading rod does work well from what I understand.

And by your comments it seem you like the SS reels better than plastic, so that's a factor. Nothing like sitting in the wrong church pew to make a job hard!!

I doubt anyone still makes the baskets and tanks that you could buy as a set. I've got a basket and a couple of tanks in the back of my closet somewhere that I delusionally bought once. I think they're 3 gallon tanks or something equally ridiculous. If my wife hasn't thrown them out as more of that darkroom junk, that is.

Let me look for them this weekend, and if I have anything that's not trashed we can talk. You can tell from the fact that I don't quite know where they are that I don't use them much.

MB

Ah double loading, I get it. That is an advantage plastic systems have over SS

Yah, let me know about the basket. I might be interested.

[AlbertZeroK]

I double load 120 on a paterson reel, it helps to tape the rolls together. When I had a jobo, those reels had litlte plastic things to seperate two spools of 120.

[Diapositivo]

If you use a rotative processor like my Jobo CPP-2 with lift the amount of chemicals is smaller than when using inversion, and therefore also the emptying - filling time is shorter. The liquids are inserted into the tank while the tank is horizontal and rotating so all rolls basically touch the chemicals at the same time. Provided the processor is well levelled (measuring levelling on the tank) there should be no uniformity problems.

[jnanian]

if you can get a few large 3-4 gallon tupperware container and a few coat hangers
you can make a dip/dunk system to process your film ...
just bend the bottom of the coathanger to keep the films from sliding off
and load the hanger up as high as your tank goes
you can make 2 or 3 hangers like this ... put your film on, and raise / lower your film shishkabobs
to agitate i used to process film like this for years but i opted for the metal reels and 3 reel hand tanks
its just as easy and works fine ... just process your film a couple a day and you will be OK ...
no use rushing everything and poorly processing ... some negatives can't be replaced ...

good luck !
john

[michaelbsc]

if you can get a few large 3-4 gallon tupperware container and a few coat hangers
you can make a dip/dunk system to process your film ...
just bend the bottom of the coathanger to keep the films from sliding off
and load the hanger up as high as your tank goes
you can make 2 or 3 hangers like this ... put your film on, and raise / lower your film shishkabobs
to agitate i used to process film like this for years but i opted for the metal reels and 3 reel hand tanks
its just as easy and works fine ... just process your film a couple a day and you will be OK ...
no use rushing everything and poorly processing ... some negatives can't be replaced ...

good luck !
john

I'll guarantee this will be cheaper than the basket and 3 gallon stainless tanks.

[jnanian]

I'll guarantee this will be cheaper than the basket and 3 gallon stainless tanks.

like with everything ... it takes a roll or 2 to figure out agitation technique
and time needed ... you need to lower slowly so there aren't surge marks
then barely move the shishkabob up and down using the same development time
as sheet-film in hangers / deep tank it was a piece of cake ...
you can even use dektol and it would make it super fast to process
1:3 for 1:45 mins ... i know, i know massive grain you are thinking to yourself
but it just isn't true, dektol can yield wonderful film negatives

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/3...ilm-paper.html

it seems that don's images aren't available right now,
but i am sure if you pm him he will be happy to give you the low-down

have fun !
john

[dpurdy]

I have a home made system that allows me to process a lot of film for custom lab clients. I went to "Tap Plastics" and got 5"diameter plastic tubes cut into 24" lengths and then got 6x6" acrylic squares to glue to the bottom of them to make a base they stand up on. I used the proper glue they sell which seals well and then added to the strength with epoxy.
Then I went to a metal shop that sold stainless steel rods and bought a couple slightly less than an 8th inch diameter and I bent a handle on one end and bent a spiral on the other. Now I can load 8 120 reels or 14 35mm reels on at once. The tanks hold 10 liters so I put in 2 packages of XTOL. I made floating lids out of plastic food containers like large cottage cheese or yogurt. Some are exactly the right diameter to make a perfect floating lid. I just tape the container lid on the empty container with packing tape.
I keep track of the film I process and use the extended development method of countering developer exhaustion. I can process 150 rolls of film in one 10L mix of developer.
I agitate by lifting the film on the rod completely out of the developer tank and then putting it back in. I get perfectly even development. The time it takes to lift the film out and move it to the next tank of stop bath is not significant.
You wouldn't have to make yours as large as mine. You could scale it down so the tank will hold only 5L Xtol or only a gallon of your favorite developer. If you have the room for all that in your bathroom it is the best way to do it as far as even development, perfect smooth skies and the same processing on the inside of the reel as the outside frame.
Dennis

[PDH]

I have a home made system that allows me to process a lot of film for custom lab clients. I went to "Tap Plastics" and got 5"diameter plastic tubes cut into 24" lengths and then got 6x6" acrylic squares to glue to the bottom of them to make a base they stand up on. I used the proper glue they sell which seals well and then added to the strength with epoxy.
Then I went to a metal shop that sold stainless steel rods and bought a couple slightly less than an 8th inch diameter and I bent a handle on one end and bent a spiral on the other. Now I can load 8 120 reels or 14 35mm reels on at once. The tanks hold 10 liters so I put in 2 packages of XTOL. I made floating lids out of plastic food containers like large cottage cheese or yogurt. Some are exactly the right diameter to make a perfect floating lid. I just tape the container lid on the empty container with packing tape.
I keep track of the film I process and use the extended development method of countering developer exhaustion. I can process 150 rolls of film in one 10L mix of developer.
I agitate by lifting the film on the rod completely out of the developer tank and then putting it back in. I get perfectly even development. The time it takes to lift the film out and move it to the next tank of stop bath is not significant.
You wouldn't have to make yours as large as mine. You could scale it down so the tank will hold only 5L Xtol or only a gallon of your favorite developer. If you have the room for all that in your bathroom it is the best way to do it as far as even development, perfect smooth skies and the same processing on the inside of the reel as the outside frame.
Dennis

I made a system like Dennis's only smaller for 4 rolles of 120 and used Microdol stock with replenisher. I also have a old unicolor film drum which I will take 3 rolls.

[michaelbsc]

I would ask again if it is a requirement that all the rolls be processed simultanously?
If not then either a Phototherm or a Jobo will give you extremely repeatable batch to batch results even weeks apart.

And also how many is "more than four" rolls? Six? Or twenty? Or is that still unknown?

If it is a commercial project then I would strongly suggest buying a rotary processor, either new or used. Phototherm still sells and supports the SSK8R. And they'll support it even if you buy it used.

[Sirius Glass]

Jobo can hand more than four rolls.

1520Tank +153+1530 10
2583(2523+2560) 10
2593(2553+2560) 14

Steve