anyone hear of using alcohol instead of photoflow as a drying agent

[j.e.simmons]

Back in the 70s, Yankee made a film dryer that seemed to be a mix of something like Photoflo (it foamed a little when shaken) and alcohol (smell was obvious). I used it for drying in high humidity and the negatives dried in about a half hour rather than a full day. I see no problem with the negatives forty years later.

[locutus]

Here in Finland even undiluted Photoflo is cheaper then Alcohol >:-D

[JPJackson]

5ml photo flow + 25ml 91% isopropyl alcohol in a 4 liters of water works well.

[John Olsen]

Back in the days of glass plates for holography, a series of alcohol rinses were said to reduce emulsion distortion during the drying process. We used that procedure, but I don't know if it was important.

[jp]

The shake test on here demonstrates how different percentages of alcohol affect surface tension of the liquid. My use of alcohol for film is simply for either cleaning or speeding drying. Distilled water by itself as a final rinse will give me film without drying spots.

http://learntomoonshine.com/proofing...test-explained

[Michael Rosenberg]

I routinely use isopropyl alcohol as a final rinse. It helps with drying, avoiding water spots, or getting microscopic particles in water drying on the film. It will sometimes remove the last bit of anti-halation dye on the film if left to soak.

Mike

[chassis]

I have started using alcohol with a little photo flo and have noticed a small reduction in drying time. Two film drying and photo flo questions:

- does anyone use warm (100 deg F) rinse/photo flo for black and white non C-41 film? It seems warmth speeds drying time when I run C-41.

- does anyone use C-41 Kodak final rinse for black and white non C-41 film? I hear it is photo flo and some other stuff. I get better and faster drying performance with C-41 than I do with, say, Tri-X processed at 68 deg F for all steps.

[Michael Graves]

Back in the days of Prohibition, photographers were allowed to buy grain alcohol for drying negatives. Which, according to Edward Weston, was why photographers had the best parties.

[bigdog]

Back in the 70s, Yankee made a film dryer that seemed to be a mix of something like Photoflo (it foamed a little when shaken) and alcohol (smell was obvious). I used it for drying in high humidity and the negatives dried in about a half hour rather than a full day. I see no problem with the negatives forty years later.

"Yankee Instant Film Dryer"

used a lot of it!

[EdWorkman]

Alcohol replaces the water in the emulsion.
Alcohol vaporizes quickly, thus dries out of the emulsion more quickly than water
If you want to do it reeeaaallly fast, use alcohol, then ether- watch out for explosion and a bad headache