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Thread: DIY Film Drying Box

  1. #1

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    DIY Film Drying Box

    Ive been thinking of making a simple wooden box with a door for hanging the wet 5x4 negatives in, something similar to my mockup below.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    On the top I was going to drill a hole in the centre and place a heppa filter over the hole which would be the intake.
    On the bottom, I was going to drill the same size hole in the centre for the output.
    Around the front where the door would close, I was going to place some draught excluder tape so the door would fit nice and snug up against it.

    I am not overly concerned about force air or heat drying.

    Question:
    Can anyone see any flaws in this setup?

  2. #2

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    Where will the moisture go and how will you get rid of the moisture?

  3. #3

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon View Post
    Where will the moisture go and how will you get rid of the moisture?
    I was going to add a small removeable tray on the bottom

  4. #4

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    Looks OK, but -- if for some reason you need to dry film fast -- there are faster, easier, simpler alternatives.

  5. #5
    Randy's Avatar
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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    My method - I have one of those spring-loaded telescoping closet rods in the shower. Have a bunch of plastic close-pins that have hooks on one end to hang over the rod. I just hang my film in the shower, pull the shower curtain closed, close the floor heater vent almost all the way to minimize air movement and close the bathroom door.
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52893762/bigger4b.jpg

  6. #6

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    You'll need a fan to make sure the air flows the right way, something to pull the air down thru the filter and out the bottom. Just the filter and hole in the bottom won't do much in fact since warm air rises it might actually go the wrong way. You'd be better off with no hole or filter just a closed box.

  7. #7

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    Ian, as Bob Salomon and George says a little fan would be necessary, at 20ºC 1000L of 100% water saturated air only contains around 17mg of water (17gr/m3), this is half a drop per L. If original air is at 50% humidity you need some 5 L of air for each drop. So some air forced circulation is interesting to not depend on the natural circulation across the HEPA filter. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/m...ir-d_1403.html

    Evaporation speed depends on temperature, air speed and air humidity. The most pratical way is that you simply mantain internal humidity low by injecting some fresh air. I'd use a fan from an old PC box.

  8. #8

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    Quote Originally Posted by Pere Casals View Post
    Ian, as Bob Salomon and George says a little fan would be necessary, at 20ºC 1000L of 100% water saturated air only contains around 17mg of water (17gr/m3), this is half a drop per L. If original air is at 50% humidity you need some 5 L of air for each drop. So some air forced circulation is interesting to not depend on the natural circulation across the HEPA filter. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/m...ir-d_1403.html

    Evaporation speed depends on temperature, air speed and air humidity. The most pratical way is that you simply mantain internal humidity low by injecting some fresh air. I'd use a fan from an old PC box.
    I like the idea of a computer fan which could be easily mounted on the inside at the top. Does the size of the box have to be mathematically worked out for it to be effective

  9. #9

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    Quote Originally Posted by IanBarber View Post
    I like the idea of a computer fan which could be easily mounted on the inside at the top. Does the size of the box have to be mathematically worked out for it to be effective
    No... just use the volume amount you need for the film, a little fan moves a lot of air and with that air circulation won't allow humidity to get high. You can be sure that ventilation is enough by placing a cheap weather humidity sensor inside to see that it is not much higher that in the outside.

    At 80% air humidity evaporation may be 2x than at 90%, because in the first there is 20% until saturation and in the second there is 10%.

    So if in exterior you have 60% and in the interior you have 65% then I'd say ventilation it is good enough.

    If you were wanting a fast film drying (like in minilabs) with high speed hot air you would require a more complex design, but I understand you simply want a clean space to not take dust, so I'd take just the volume I would need, with moderate HEPA filtered ventilation, that's all...

  10. #10

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    Re: DIY Film Drying Box

    I made a simple horizontal drying box for drying carbon tissue which is actually much much wetter than typical LF film would be (since the gelatin soaks up a lot of water). I made a box with the same basic design as you. I used a computer fan with a stovepipe duct adapter on one end to step up from 4" duct to 12" duct. The 12" duct end is in the interior of the box. The carbon tissue sits horizontally on screens and on the other side of the box I have a right-angle duct that the air exits out of.

    It seems to work fine and cuts my carbon tissue drying time at by over half (used to take several days now I can dry fresh tissue overnight).

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