Stacking film developing trays

[cyrus]

I have a lot of 4x5 negs from my last trip using my Polaroid 4x5 conversion, and I Need a quite & effective method of developing them. THe daylight tank isn't doing it. Not enough agitation, uneven development, and now I have had problems with the acufine starting to foam up & create bubbles

Way back when, I remember seeing a cool way of developing 4x5 film:
4 negs were placed separately inside an 8x10 tray that had a handle in the middle and raised areas shaped like a cross that prevented the negs from touching each other so each neg had its own little space in the tray.

This tray had holes on the bottom. It was placed inside another tray that held the developing fluid. THe fluid would seep through the holes of the top tray and would get to the negs, and when the time came to remove the film from the developer, you just lifted the tray using the handle. Then, you inserted it into another tray that had the stop, and then another tray that had the fix etc

Anyone know who made this product?

[David Karp]

I think you can get one from Photographer's Formulary. Also, Summitek makes one.

Or you can build one yourself out of acrylic. I have one made to fit in 11x14 trays that will develope six sheets at once. It works well. Here is a thread where we discussed it a bit. That thread also raises the possibility of developing sheet film in tubes dropped inside of a paint can: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...hlight=slosher

Here is another thread on the subject: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...hlight=slosher

[cyrus]

Yup! THat's the ticket!

400 sheets of film, here I come!

[Bruce Watson]

I have a lot of 4x5 negs from my last trip using my Polaroid 4x5 conversion, and I Need a quite & effective method of developing them. THe daylight tank isn't doing it. Not enough agitation, uneven development, and now I have had problems with the acufine starting to foam up & create bubbles

One thing to consider might be a Jobo 3010 tank with a roller. Ten at a time in daylight, with excellently even development. But continuous agitation.

Another might be an old Nikor sheet film tank. They show up on feeBay fairly often. IIRC, 12 sheets of 5x4 at a time, in daylight, and you agitate just like the smaller 35mm and 120/220 small tanks, which is small tank intermittant agitation.

There's also "slosher" trays that let you develop in trays, usually four sheets of 5x4 at a time, in the dark, but keeps each sheet of film completely separate from the others.

All depends on what you want.

[Donald Qualls]

If you're going to stand in the dark anyway, another option (simpler to build, perhaps less convenient to use) is simple pieces of 1 1/2" plastic pipe, five inches long. With the ends sanded smooth and a little chamfer on the inside of each end, you can easily put a film in and take it out without scratching, and there's no shuffling films or wondering if they've come out of the processing panel in the dark (you won't know until you have the panel in the fixer and turn on the light, probably).

Personally, I found it more effective to get some food containers that substitute nicely for 5x7 trays (for processing 4x5 and 9x12 cm films) and sacrifice enough negatives to learn how to process without scratching (the final trick was to process emulsion down -- all the contact between negative edges and flats is now on the back, where scratches are less likely to be noticeable, but this only works if the tray itself is smooth enough not to scratch). I can process six negatives in 250 ml of working solution (if the developer permits that many; I like high dilutions, and mostly find 4 negatives at a time works better), and the "trays" cost $4 for three at the local supermarket.

[David Karp]

My experience has been that if you make the slosher dividers taller than the tray, then the films do not come out of their compartment during development. This is precisely why I abandoned the Phil Bard processing panel concept and went with a slosher design.

[Louie Powell]

Cyrus -

Here is a picture of one that I made. It does six sheets in my 11x14 trays. I also have one that does two sheets in my 8x10 trays. Whether you can make one that will do four sheets in an 8x10 tray really depends on the dimensions of the tray.

I used standard 0.25" plexiglass from Home Despot. The best adhesive is plexi adhesive - Home Despot doesn't sell this but you can find it at glass shops. Be sure to also buy the applicator - a polyethelene bottle with a syringe-like top. To use, hold the pieces together, and apply a drop of the adhesive at the joint. It will be pulled into the joint by capillary action, and the weld cures in a few seconds. Do it outdoors - the stuff is flamable and the fumes aren't good to breathe.

If you want dimensions, send me a PM.

[David Karp]

Louie's post made me think of this. I used the type of cement that he did for my slosher. The brand and variety I used was Weld-On #3. Robert Zeichner suggested a thicker, more viscous version, Weld-On #16. This comes in its own tube and will make it a little easier to assemble the slosher because the glue sticks to the parts very well. You can apply it to the dividers and then push it into place. I bought a tube of #16 for my next slosher, which will hold 9 sheets. I would do a 16x20 "Super Slosher" but I don't have enough room to lay out all the trays in the bathroom!

[David Karp]

Louie,

That is a beautiful slosher! How did you make the cuts? I am thinking mostly about the slices with the curved radius toward the middle of each compartment, but also about the individual pieces.

I just drilled holes in the base for mine, and scored and broke the acrylic. All of the holes and edges of the breaks required sanding. I also beveled the holes with a file.

For what its worth, it seemed to me as if the cheaper acrylic sheets sold at Home Depot and OSH are a bit more ridgid than the higher-priced Lexan. This helps when you get into 11 x 14 and larger sloshers so they resist flexing when you agitate or remove them from the tray.

[David A. Goldfarb]

When I have a significant volume of 4x5" or 5x7" to process, I use tanks and hangers. You can do a lot this way, and you still can control the development of individual sheets easily by time or inspection. Hangers are quick to load and don't have to dry completely between batches. I haven't tried developing sheets back-to-back in hangers, but I've read that it can be done.