I use a shower cabin to dry my film (since I thoroughly clean the bathroom beforehand my family has no objections). Run hot water in the cabin for a minute to create some steam which removes dust from the air. A piece of aluminium angle and cloth pegs are used to hang the film and keep it straight while drying. I have no problem with dust. Residue (drying marks) could be caused by hard water used for the final rinse. I use distilled water with Photo-Flo.
Cleaning dried negatives
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- Thread starter Fatih Ayoglu
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Koraks - fortunately, my darkrooms are in a different building from the main house. But we have outdoor cats too, which make a regular game out of being naughty and trying sneak into places they aren't supposed to. I have to keep the door closed at all times, which can be tricky if I'm trying to carry a stack of mounted prints from there to the flat files in the main house, or similar tasks which require a temporarily open door.
The more important issue is to thoroughly clean or change my clothes before entering the inner sanctum of film work or one of the enlarger stations. Frequent space cleaning is also vital. But we do love our cats, and one of them has been sitting on my lap while typing this.
The more important issue is to thoroughly clean or change my clothes before entering the inner sanctum of film work or one of the enlarger stations. Frequent space cleaning is also vital. But we do love our cats, and one of them has been sitting on my lap while typing this.
I use the home built in vacuum , the power unit is a long way from the hose pick up.
My home heating is not forced air so I have no recirculating air in the home.
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Oh, that's a nice convenience. I use a portable real deal Hepa vac (two-stage EPA certified). It can also be used remotely via ducting from a different room.
I only use what works for me.
Alright folks, finally I have managed to build a cupboard to the specification I need, made it really airtight when the door is closed with 3 hooks so the door is well closed. Developed 7 rolls of films, no visible dust at all.
Now the times comes to clean old negatives. I am going to prepare Kodak Rewash formula PB-6 as described on the ECN-2 spec manual. It has Sodium Sulphite (anhydrous) which I have and Sodium Bisulphite (anhydrous) which I do not have. For some reason, that bisulphite is not available to purchase in UK at all in reasonable quantities. However there is plent metabisulphite and some says it can be used as well.
Do you have any idea if I can substitute Sodium Bisulphite with Metabisulphite?
Now the times comes to clean old negatives. I am going to prepare Kodak Rewash formula PB-6 as described on the ECN-2 spec manual. It has Sodium Sulphite (anhydrous) which I have and Sodium Bisulphite (anhydrous) which I do not have. For some reason, that bisulphite is not available to purchase in UK at all in reasonable quantities. However there is plent metabisulphite and some says it can be used as well.
Do you have any idea if I can substitute Sodium Bisulphite with Metabisulphite?
This is an oft-occurring confusion; the simple & short answer is that metabisulfite is bisulfite.
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Cats and darkroom - Argh! I once let one of ours in from the garden. He gleefully ran past me, saw the darkroom door open, lept like a salmon through the door at a height of three feet landing squarely in my tray of fixer! He sat there looking pleased with himself until I had to hoik him out and run paws and underside under the tap for half an hour. He was called Isis and was amusingly daft!
I guess I have been lucky - my darkroom has been in the old basement coal room, as far from living space as possible. You couldn't get the cats to go down there for anything!
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LOL.
Our last vet chuckled when I talked about having them "broke." I wouldn't exactly call it "fixed."
So, will the smell of the chemicals keep the cats away (apparently fixer won't, lol). Some of our cats do like to hang out around me, so I've not developed film in a while.
It shouldn't be too much of a problem except for drying, but there is a storage room they are forbidden from, so that might be my only hope. I usually let film dry by hanging it from the shower curtain rod.
Having five female indoor cats, I find this statement hilarious. My darkroom is locked closed, cats are forboten.
I built a dryer from a some 4" PVC fittings, a fan designed to fit into a computer, and a round Hepa filter that fits into one end of the pipe. Basically, the fan sucks air into the pipe which has to go through the Hepa filter first. The film stays on the reel and sits inside of the PVC pipe. I will say that my dust problems vanished--100% gone. However, drying your film while it is still on the reels will result in extremely curled film that will need to sit for days under something heavy. Even then, it will still have some curl to it but not so much that it prevents using the negs on a scanner or enlarger.