Will Photo-Flo harm 35mm metal reels?

[dave_back]

In college I was taught that if Photo-Flo ever came in contact with metal reels,

you could never use them again. My teacher warned that doing so would ruin every

roll of film that ever came into contact with the contaminated reels. Is there

any truth to this? It doesn't seem logical to me, but I have never risked it. I

now want to buy a film dryer that you simply drop the reels into. Doing so would

require leaving the film on the reel through to the Photo-Flo. Any advice to

quell my paranoia would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[mendel_leisk]

I never had any problems with that combo. The reels are stainless steel, and photo flo is a mild surfactant.

[michaelging]

That is all, I use for developing film, and I have never had a problem. I am carefull to rinse the reels after use to keep the gunk from building up .

[william_john_smith]

If in fact your teacher was serious then he is incompetent and should be fired. Then again if

he is right then I have 35 years worth of ruined negatives. <BR>Kodak does say not to MIX

photoflo with processing chemicals but reusing reels that have been used is photoflo is not

the same thing.

[randall ellis]

Misinformation making the rounds. It never ceases to amaze me how people who are responsible for teaching others don't hesitate to spread information that they heard from someone who heard it from someone else, etc. I'm curious what they though was going to happen to stainless steel. I mean, you can sheath a building in stainless steel and it lasts for centuries, but a film reel would be ruined by a single drop of what is basicaly very pure soap (surficant) that was designed to be used with stainless steel tanks and film hangers...

 

Sorry for the rant - you'll be fine. I'm using equipment that has been soaked in various wetting agents for untold years with no problems at all.

 

- Randy

[frank.schifano]

Let me be plain. Your instructor is feeding you a line of pure bulls**t. Stainless steel reels are easy to clean. Rinse them off after use and you're done. If you let the film dry on the reels, let the reels soak in warm water for a few minutes then rinse them off.

 

This person is teaching a college level course? Have you asked how he came to that conclusion. The Jesuits who taught me in high school would have had your hide for not having questioned the instructor. I think you should challenge this moron's logic.

[g._armour_van_horn]

It's hard to imagine anything, with the exception of distilled water, that has less of a chance of damaging stainless reels and tanks than Photoflo.

 

What else did this "teacher" tell you? You will want to reexamine everything he said. The person who could tell you this with a straight face might tell you that the sun rises in the East, and he would be right, but you should consider the source and double check it anyway.

 

Van

[jtk]

Those that can, do...

[Ed_Ingold]

Don't even think of drying film on the reel. It will dry slowly, probably stick to the reel (damaging the film when you remove it), leave water spots (you can't use a squeegee) and dry with a permanent curl.

 

To dry film, hang it vertically using stainless steel clips. The bottom clip should be weighted to keep the film straight. Before attaching the bottom clip, use a film squeegee (rubber, not foam) after first dipping the squeegee in the last rinse solution and shaking off the drops.

 

If your instructor tells you different, explain what you are doing, why you are doing it and where you heard it. If he takes issue with us, what's one more moron to deal with?

[john_stockdale2]

There used to be some info on the Jobo web site that stated that Photoflo should not be used with the reels because of build-up. I can't find it on the Jobo website, but an excerpt is in a post here

 

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007gg3

 

I use half strength Photoflo in my Jobo and have not problems. After use I rinse the reels in a very dilute very highly alkaline detergent. I can't believe that stainless steel reels could not be cleaned chemically to prevent build-up.

[michaelging]

Edward , I have dried thousands of rolls of film on the reels with out any of the problems you are talking about. The film dryers we used in our photo lab were tubes ,with a heating element on the top a filter and a fan. When the film was dry , which only took a few minutes ,it layed flat with out any curl. I do hang my film now using the clips you talked about, but I never had a problem drying film on the reels.

[dave_back]

Thanks to everyone who cleared this up for me.

[bob oldendorf]

Of all the chemicals that film reels come into contact with - including various

acids and alkalis - I would worry the LEAST about the Photo-Flo.

 

Heck, there is probably tap water - with various salts and minerals and

unknown pollutants - that's worse than Photo-Flo.

[williamchuttonjr]

As a chemist I am certain Photo-Flo can not harm metal film reels. Photo-Flo is a surfactant. Chemicaly it is essentially a very pure specialized soap � similar to liquid dish soap. Photo-Flo + stainless steel = no reaction.

 

Of course one should always clean (rinse and wipe) all photo developing equiptment at the end of a session.

 

willie

[kelly_flanigan1]

Better grade reels, tanks and trays are made from robust 316 grade stainless. The only legend I ever heard about photo-flo was it can cause a buildup, IF you are a bum and dont clean them, rinse them with water. Here I have been using Nikors for over 4 decades with Photo-flo; usually I hand the negatives up to dry. Photo-flo changed it formula I think awhile back. <BR><BR>Your teacher has gotten to you to think, a challenge his goofy ill dogma, this alone is worth something. The teacher migh have learned his dogma from another fool, and just regurgitated the dogma to another possible set of fools.<BR><BR>

[art_arkin]

Answered well and truly in the posts above, A firm no.

 

I've watched one of Londons best custom black and white printers dunk a whole rack containing 24 rolls of film into a Kodak tank full of inline filtered tap water and photo-flo. He then squeegees them one by one and his negs are immaculate, never a mark or scratch to be seen This is how he finishes film for some of the biggest names in Fashion photography.

 

I use Jobo plastic reels which are aparently susceptible to some kind of absorbtion of photoflo and stabilizer in colour processes. I therefore seperate the reel and dump the whole roll into photo-flo. This works fine for me and is quick and easy to do with Jobo reels.

 

But stainless followed by a good rinse is otherwise the way to go and Hewes even makes a Jobo compatible stainless steel reel.

[kelly_flanigan1]

There is a huge "family" of plastic types for engineering. Some older tanks were often rubber, some bakelite, some wax paper too. It might have been that some cheaper plastic reels actually did have some slight problems with photo-flo, and the story got changed to stainless reels? Kodak once had a plastic apron with dots at the edges one used to process 616, 620, 127 or 35mm films.

[andre_noble4]

Your photoflo info IS true of Jobo processing equipment.