8x20 negative sleeves

Does anyone have a good system for handling/storing 8x20 negatives? I

glanced at the Light Impressions catalog and could not come up with

anything suitable. Does PrintFile or another company make negative

sleeves for 8x20?

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Thanks

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.........................

Dave...

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Contact Darkroom Innovations - now called the View Camera Store in

Arizona.

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http://www.darkroom-innovations.com/

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From what I understand these are a special order item and they buy

the min quantities so that we can buy more reasonable quantitites.

Hey Steve, yeah that's sort of a special order size I think, short of

getting a fold-lock 16x20 sleeve, and cutting this in half (which

would be pretty wasteful). I can think of a couple things to try

though. You could approach it like you'd store a glass plate, which

would be to make a four-flap paper sleeve. If these are b&w you could

use a good buffered paper like LI's Apollo paper, or any other good

paper.

You could make your own sleeves by either buying a roll of Mylar D, or

getting it in sheet sizes. You can get polyester tape for making the

seams, or use a burnishing tool to try to get the folds crisp.

Lastly, email me if you want. I can give a few storage suppliers who

custom make polyester (Mylar D) sleeves. At least one will do almost

any size, in small quantities, you'd need to check with them but I

have an old catalog here that defines small as minimum of 50.

Polyester (Mylar D) will cost more than anything else, but it's a

great storage material.

Along the lines of DK's thoughts on making sleeves yourself...

A few years ago there was a little machine sold under the brand

name "Seal-a-Meal". It's a little kitchen device that you plug in and

use to seal plastic bags shut. I bought a used one at a garage sale

for a few dollars, and it does a great job of heat-sealing baggies to

keep out dust and moisture. A great item for making odd-sized plastic

bags.

I got the imprtession that David was looking for ready cut PrintFile

type neg sleeve. The View Camera Store carries it.

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Naturally there are other solutions.

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I don't believe the price for the sleeves is prohibitive. If I

remember correctly they are sold in 100 sleeve increments.

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Steve

Well it's worth calling one of these places anyways, chances are if

it's a polyester sleeve that The View Camera stores sells, that it

comes from one of the archival supply places. There are probably a

good half dozen that make their own sleeves, but here are the two that

I had mind. First is the Hollinger Corp. (1-800-634-0491). Second is

Conservation Resources International (1-800-634-6932). I ran some

numbers using an old CRI catalog, and I don't really think it would

cost that much to get them done. If it were me, I'd just buy a sheet

of Mylar D, and fold it in half using a burnishing tool. Of course,

this wouldn't be as crisp as a manufactured seam, but it would work.

Interleaving sleeves are made like this. The four flap envelope is

nice because it's gives support. You don't have to use plastic either,

a good quality paper (like I described) envelope is okay too, that's a

big neg., it's not like you're going to be sliding in & out of a

sleeve. Watch out for adhesives & seams in paper, turn the emulsion

away from any seams. It's worth getting a CRI catalog anyways, there

are alot of good products in it.