DIY Fixer....

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I live in Ireland - officially the worst possible place (other than Outer Mongolia) to find anything remotely specific.<br>

Last night, I test-developed a scrap roll of TMAX in Caffenol C, sure as nuts it developed (left with a pinky-looking film strip and lots of black waste-fluid), but what is possible to homebrew for fixing?<br>

Ammonium thiosulphate I've read, but where on earth would I find this other than swimming pool stores...which we don't have here. Looks like I'll just have to eBay in the fixer until I get back to Montréal...</p>

<p>L</p>

<p>Where in Ireland ? There are quite a few places in Dublin where you can pick up whatever chemicals you're looking for. The Camera Exchange on Georges street, There's a fuji place on Middle Abbey street, Gunnes in wexford street, Conns just off grafton street. It is, I'd imagine, a little better supplied in this regard than Outer Mongolia :-)</p>

<p>Heard the phrase 'to hell or to Connaught?'<br>

Hell Photo Supplies Ltd. only stocks pyro :p!</p>

<p>Galway here, I'd severely doubt any where has stuff for commercial resale.</p>

<p>I use sodium thiosulfate (pentahydrated). I like using Photographer's Formulary in Montana, USA, as a chemical supplier. Diluting that sodium thio' makes "plain hypo." It's very weak; after about six prints it'll start to wear down. If there are no other components in the solution to stabilize it, it'll compound to make a black sulphurous dust. </p>

<p>You can see that same kind of dust, maybe a speck or two, in regular fixer as it gets exhausted. The plain hypo will make a lot of it. I'd say an easy teaspoonful of this residue spread evenly over the bottom of the tray. When using plain hypo, you have to keep an eye on cross-contamination as those black specks, if they get in the wet emulsion, like when it's in developer, will just embed themselves to the picture or negative. </p>

<p>I have not seen any good substitute for ammonium or sodium thio'. As far as I know, it's the only fixer for silver processes.</p>

<p>Yeah, there really isn't a good substitute for ammonium or sodium thiosulfate. Personally, I prefer the ammonium thiosulfate (rapid) fixers myself because they're faster and more economical. Others feel differently. In the end it does not really matter which you choose for current silver gelatin products. </p>

<p>Liam, I've never been to Ireland, but doesn't the post office deliver mail there? If you can't buy locally, can't you just mail-order what you need? Plenty of small towns here in the states haven't had a real camera store in 20 years but photographers order their cameras, lens, accessories, film, chemicals, etc., from places like <a href="http://www.bhphoto.com">www.bhphoto.com</a> or <a href="http://www.adorama.com">www.adorama.com</a></p>

<p>And there's Barker Photographic in Cork - Paddy is a very helpful guy there. You can also get supplies easily from UK if you prefer.</p>

<p>I was merely wondering if there were any 'concrete' stores within Ireland and thankfully, there are (and members have had experience with them). IT's not easy to see from some websites whether they sell chemicals or not.<br>

I'm only here 'til March until I return to Montreal, and know where to source there. Many thanks again!</p>

<p>L</p>

<p>There must be a one-hour photo lab somewhere. Ask where they buy C-41 fixer. Superb stuff, dirt cheap, works great for B&W.</p>

<p>Another vote for colour C-41 fixer. Just as good as "black and white" fixer, made of the same stuff, but sold more cheaply because of competition. Is a bit less acidic, so is as good as "boutique" alkaline fixer.</p>

<p>There is a guy over at Flickr who claims he is able to fix film with ordinary table salt or even sea water. I dunno I just tell you he said so......</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"...fix film with ordinary table salt or even sea water..."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That anecdote has been floating around the web for years. According to my older pre-internut books, this seawater anecdote apparently began with photographers on naval ships having to deal with limited fresh water supplies. Supposedly they used seawater for the primary washing of negatives and prints, with a final rinse in a small amount of fresh water. I don't recall seeing any claims in these older texts that film or prints could be adequately fixed in seawater.</p>

<p>I'm hoping to find more definitive opinions from someone with a stronger background in chemistry. If you and I are thinking of the same fellow on Flickr, he seemed to be claiming that merely using a stronger salt solution was needed if anyone reported failure to fix adequately with seawater.</p>

<p>Naaaa, this character apparently is an engineer, eletrical that is, and places a lot of weight on how to get a table salt solution to be really oncentrated (apparently surpriced over the fact you might need heating the water to get a really concentrated solution.......).<br>

But this one is getting out there, now claiming he has fixed images that will survive for days, his fixing time is 24 hours though.......<br /><br />He flatly refuses to test for remaining silver though, on grounds that hemicals are too expensive & hard to get (he mentioned in detail a trip to the sea to get salt sea water costing him 4 euro in petrol and 1 euro for coffe!).<br /><br />Well it would be interesting if its dooable, trouble is so far noone has been able to do what he does (claims to be doing).</p>

<p>Hmm... oh, well. I'd really like to see some definitive info on the seawater anecdotes. I'll try to dig my old texts out of the closet and refresh my memory about what was actually written about the technique decades ago.</p>

<p>DIY fixer remains the trickiest bit about having alternatives to commercially made fixer, using components that are readily available worldwide.</p>