Making a "caddy" for BTZS tubes.

[Colin Graham]

What a great idea. I need to try this with an expert drum. Would save the tedium of drying the damned thing between batches.

I put the tubes in a tub of water and tip one at a time up at an angle to load. The film slides right in. Afterward I pour the water out and it's ready to have the cap with developer put on. This way I never have to dry the tubes between batches. The film loads and unloads easier when the tubes are filled with water.

[Kirk Gittings]

For the caddy couplings Richard Wasserman suggested getting "repair" couplings as they don't have the ridge that needs to be removed-cost a dollar more.

[Kimberly Anderson]

I have two BTZS tubes...the BIG ones that I use for 12x20. I often have 4 to 6 sheets that I want to process at a time, so instead of bothering to dry them out, I just fill the tube section to the top with water all the way and insert the sheets of film into the tube in the dark. I let them 'stand' for 2 minutes and call that my pre-soak. I then dump and fill and dump and fill 2x3 times with water from a basin before I attach the cap section with my developer on the large tube. Clearly this is all done in the dark, but hey, we're used to that right?

Anyway, I had never thought of drying out the tubes between runs of film, mainly because it would be too much of a pain and in my workflow it just didn't need to be done.

Not everyone will want to do this method, I just thought I'd share it.