How do you dry your film? I am looking for a practical way to dry 4x10/5x7 negs without buying an expensive film dryer.
How do you dry your film? I am looking for a practical way to dry 4x10/5x7 negs without buying an expensive film dryer.
I haven't worked with film for years, but previously used roll film, 4 X 5 and 8 X 10. I used a film dryer one time and it blew so much dust onto the negative I never tried that again.
My process with hundreds of films was to give them a final immersion in water containing a bit of photo-flo, then squeegee them off lightly, then hang them be the corner from a wire stretched above the sink to dry naturally. Never a problem.
I hang 'em up by one corner and let nature do the rest
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
My film processing takes place in the bathroom, i hang all film roll or sheet in/over the shower/tub. Close the sliders and leave them to dry. No dust problems.
Metal clips at the corner hung from a clothes line in my darkroom. No problems so far.
I've got a drying cabinet that I use, but I rarely use the heater and fan unless I'm in a hurry. The key is using pure water and a good wetting agent like photoflo. I buy water from a local pet store that has a reverse osmosis purifier. They sell a 5 gallon jug of RO water, which has worked very well, for $2.80 if I provide the jug. I use their water for mixing my 130 paper developer as well.
One thing I did learn was to flush each sheet of film in running water before immersing it in the wetting solution. Our water has a small amount of sediment and tiny little particles adhere to the film. That final flush has been making my negatives a whole lot cleaner.
Lacking a drying cabinet, any room that people won't be kicking up the dust constantly should work. Higher humidity leads to less dust in the air.
I hang my film in one of these.
I hang them from a line using Jobo clips.
Jobo clips pierce the film with a pin, so they never drop the sheets, no matter what the format, and they hold the sheets perpendicular to the line, so you can hang a lot of sheets of any size in a small space.
Having lots of binder clips on hand, they tend to be the solution for many things around my place. Threading them onto a wire clothes hanger, with spacers, works nicely with 4x5 negs for me.
I strung wire in a prefab cabinet (one of those build it yourself things with a laminate surface from Home Depot), put a hole (12x12) at the bottom to accommodate a furnace filter for the intake and put a small exhaust fan on it at the upper side. Then clip roll film or sheet film to the wires. Also put in pegs to accommodate fiberglass screens for prints ... seems to work fine. Just a variation on a common theme. (My darkroom is a subdivided part of the garage ... haven't had dust issues.)
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