Glassware and Cleanliness?

[tim_hardin]

I use jars that range from canning jars, to jars that have had

spaghetti sauce, and everything else in between in them. The food

jars I run through the dishwasher prior to putting in the line-up.

 

I also always run hot water through all the jars, and even soak them

in a sink filled with hot water when I am getting ready to mix my

developer.

 

I do not always use the same developer, but I always clean the jars

with hot water before and after each use. I then simply let them

drain, and do not use anything to dry them. I generally leave the

fix in the jar for five uses, and then I mix some fresh.

 

I keep the jars and my fix in a Rubbermaid plastic tub between uses.

 

Since I do not always use the same developer, is this procedure okay,

in that there is no problem of contaminating one developer because

the jar I mix my developer in was simply rinsed (quite thoroughly).

An example would be I used Rodinal last weekend, and this weekend I

am going to use Ilfosol-S (or whatever the combination is from week

to week).

 

I sometimes have junk on my negatives, but I think that comes from a

slack in my cleanliness process. However, I have gotten back worse

from the one-hour place, and I get especially dirty film when I send

off any color slides to have developed by Kodak.

 

Dose anyone have a method they use that keeps the negative relatively

clean, or is junk on the negatives just a part of the art.

 

I use distilled water for developers, stop bath, fix, and final rinse

with photo-flo.

 

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

TIM

[graphicjoe]

Tim,

 

I use one flask for all developers, another for fixer, etc. I rinse after each use, and occasionally give them all a good scrubbing. Other people I�m familiar with do about the same in their darkrooms. Beyond this, I don�t think other precautions are needed.

 

I don�t know where you negative muck comes from. My negatives are consistently clean and clear, so long as I don�t damage them mechanically.

 

Perhaps someone else will have more helpful info for you.

 

Cheers,

 

Joe Stephenson

[conrad_hoffman]

You can't contaminate glass to any degree that matters. Just rinse it out and stop worrying. If you're storing motor oil or something in your glassware, use soap too ;-) As an example, I use glass and plastic graduated cylinders for developers, acids, fixer, etc., and don't dedicate one to any individual purpose. It's just not a problem. As for crud on the film, no, it shouldn't be there and you don't have to put up with it. If your water is hard or has a lot of dissolved junk in it, you need to use distilled as you are doing. A final rinse might be enough, or you might have to mix all solutions with it. I can use tap water for everything, but I do have to have a filter on the incoming water line. With the filter, I can (gasp!) use a soft photo sponge on my negs with no scratching. Do not use the rubber blade thingies. I do use PhotoFlo 200 at 1:200 dilution. That eliminates anything that might dry on the surface. Here's the part that isn't widely appreciated- by removing the bulk of the water, you remove the bulk of contaminents. Whatever is in the water will be left behind when the film is dry, so the less water, the better. There is nothing visible on the surface of my negs- no deposits, no scratches, no waterspots, just perfectly clean film. The worst possible case is water that beads up on the film when it's hung to dry. I mix most of my chemistry from scratch, and filter it before bottling. Even a cotton ball in the bottom of a funnel is quite effective. Powdered commercial preps always seem to have some paper fibers or other particles floating around, so I'd filter those, too. Never seen a problem with liquids like Rodinal.

[john_cook1]

Just three thoughts, Tim:

 

First, there may be a problem of some sort from the metal lids. Inert tops, like on plastic Coke bottles, would be much better.

 

Second, I keep a "Kosher" lab, with two sets of everything, including funnels and stir paddles. One set is for bases (developers) and the other for acids.

 

Finally, it doesn't hurt to use distilled water for everything, but perhaps not totally necessary. Distilled water's primary claim-to-fame is a neutral pH for consistency in mixing film developers. For the rest of the solutions, a good water filter would be sufficient.

 

As for the "junk" you mention, it is not normal. Look for something like a rusty pipe clamp over the back of the sink. Or is your wash water not so clean?

[patrick_oreilly]

I just started using 16 ounce spring water bottles, perfect size for using with a developing tank that holds one 120 reel or two 35mm reels. Since they're clear I store them in a dark place so the light doesn't effect the chemicals. 16 ounces of working solution gets used pretty fast any way. I'm getting about 8-9 rolls of film one 16oz bottle of fixer-hypo clearing agent-photoflo.

 

Also, here is a cheap way to filter your tap water (see image). This is a 125 degree max filter. It cost about $30 US to build, thermometer extra. I finaly figured out all I had to do was poke a small hole in the tube and push the thermometer about down in. That saved me $30 for the holder that attaches to the faucet.

[floren_pge]

I used to do research in a biochemistry lab, and we used chemicals nastier than anything in photography. We used a powder detergent from Alconox that rinsed very clean. No residual soap from this detergent. It's so safe I use it for eating utensils.

 

In my lab, we never dedicated any glassware, plasticware, or other utensils to certain chemicals because this stuff cleans it all.

 

Here's the detergent on Fisher Scientific's website:

https://www1.fishersci.com/catalogs/coupon_page.jsp?catalogParamId=692311&catalogParamType=I

 

Cheerio