Using a film drying cabinet

Hi folks

 

I've just acquired an "as new" Marrutt film drying cabinet and am excited to try it out. Do any of you have any experience with drying cabinets? I don't want to melt my negatives and am wondering what sort of temperature and duration I should be using to dry my films.

Naturally I can do my own testing but I'd prefer to hear first hand from someone who has used one before.

The drying cabinet we have at the college where I teach is normally set for a temperature of about 105-110 degrees F. It usually takes about 12-15 minutes to dry several rolls of 35 mm 36 exposure film.

Wow, that's much quicker than I thought. Thanks for the advice, that's a good starting point for me.

Heated/convection air movement or heated/unheated and fan to move the air?

 

At the junior college that I took a class in, the film drying cabinet was simply a place to dry the film with protection from dust.

It was NOT for speeding up the drying process, there was no heat or forced air circulation.

Copy the idea of "dust" being the problem.

Fan-driven drying cabinets can really benefit from filtration of the incoming air.

The one I referred to above does have an air filter. While my beginning students frequently have processing "adventures", dust on their negatives acquired during drying usually isn't one of them.

My preferred drying cabinet for 30+ years was a tall, wooden structure, sealed with the exception of two, 3" circular vents in the door, still available at most Big Box hardware stores. These inlets (top & bottom) had foam inserts in them that allowed a slow, infiltration within the cabinet. One can also acquire horizontal vents with built-in filters. When I wanted "fast" drying (2-3 hrs) a 25 watt light, built in the bottom, was turned on. Once "cleaned", and keep that way, dust problems were minimal. Aloha, Bill