Unicolor drum problems

[Darin Cozine]

Michael, could you post a scan of the problem?

[bob moulton]

I have been usng the unicolor base with either th jobo 2500 drum or the 3010 for several years with b/w and no problems. I compared results with the same drums on a jobo cpa-2 and measured no densitiy shifts. You might try getting on e o those drums and trying it.

[John Kasaian]

Michael,

You cannot do two 8x10s in an 11x14 drum. One sheet yes, two no. I have the same drum, there is not room for both sheets without overlapping and nothing to hold both secure to the sides of the drum if they didn't overlap. I've got an 11x14 drum so I know this is true. I hope this helps.

Cheers!

[tim atherton]

"You cannot do two 8x10s in an 11x14 drum. One sheet yes, two no. I have the same drum, there is not room for both sheets without overlapping and nothing to hold both secure to the sides of the drum if they didn't overlap. I've got an 11x14 drum so I know this is true. I hope this helps."

Funny - I have a Unicolor 11x14 drum - you can do two 8x10 sheets in mine - it has the little "v"s at both top and bottom (+the box says 4 5x7; 2 8x10; 1 11x14...)

:-)

tim

[John Kasaian]

Tim, How do you do that? Do they fit side by side with a spacer to keep them from over lapping? Or will they fit into opposite sides of the drum??

[tim atherton]

I got two off ebay that were actually new old stock (with a price label dated in the early 1980's sometime...) and they had an instruction sheet with them.

They have one central "v" and two side notches at the "bottom" and one central "v" on the top so an 11x14 sheet would slot in one bottom notch and curve all the way around inside and slot in the other notch (same way as one 8x10 sheet does in the 8x10 drum)

for 8x10, one slots in the bottom, central "v" and curves up one half of the inside to one side of the top "v". Another does the same on the other side/half

This is the Unidrum II

The sheet is very simple, but I could scan it and see if Tuan will put it on the site with the Unicolor article?

[Michael Pry]

John, One thing that I do know is that you can in fact do two 8/10's at a time. As Tim mentioned you may also do 4 5/7's as well. I'm ready to give up on these things as I never have had so much trouble(this should be fun, right?)Initially what I was trying to achieve was a technique that would be repeatable...every time with no variation. Now I have used the Beseler drum(11X14) with the smooth sides and have loaded the film wet after a minimal pre-soak then continuing with a five minute pre-soak in the drum with motor base on. After a 2 minute fix in the drum(Beseler) and 2 minutes outside with fixer in a tray the negs where great. What I really was after in addition to a repeatable consistent technique was the luxury of simply loading film dry and away we go. Not happening. I will ruminate on all this for awhile. Thanks everyone for your responses.

[Al W]

I've gotten excellent repeatable results from the Beseler print drums. I have 4 of the 11x14s so I can process 16 sheets of 5x7 without having to clean and dry drums! Repeatable results is one of the beauties of this process.

Pablo is absolutely correct. The halation coating does have to be removed after coming out of the drum. Tray fixing after a fix in the drum is important.

[John Kasaian]

Tim & Mike,

I got out my 11x14 Unicolor drum to see where I went wrong. It isn't the Unicolor II, but here is what I found:

Surprise(to me)! Two sheets of 8x10 will fit. It would be harder to get them in while in the dark though. That is what I tried when I first got the drum, so that is how I reached my conclusion. It would be very easy to scratch the emulsion on the first sheet if one isn't 'dead on' inserting the second sheet in the drum. Next, I tried 5x7. This took more effort...I could get it stay in, but when I rolled the drum, the film would pop out of the ridges. I eventually found the combination of which ridges to use and both 5x7s did stay put. I guess my touch isn't as "educated." Then I got out some 4x5. No way would those stay put in the 11x14 drum with the short dimension in the channels.

I stand in error, mea culpa!

Cheers!

[Leonard Robertson]

I developed 2 sheets of Freestyle 125 (reputed to be FP4) in an 11X14 Unicolor drum on a Unicolor motor base, using Pyrocat 2:2:100 - 400ml. with 500ml distilled water presoak for 5 minutes. The negatives came out looking just fine; no sign of streaking. I wonder if Mike's streaking problem is a batch of FP4 with an especially tough antihalation backing that wasn't easily removed where it was close to the ribs in the Unicolor drum. In my 11X14 drum, the film is pressed snuggly against the center two ribs and quite close to the next two. Mike, before giving up on your Unicolor drums, you might try a different film, even a different batch of FP4. I've actually given up on Unicolor drums twice now due to leaks, but the silicone sealer under the rubber gasket trick has worked great on the one 8X10 drum I've tried it on, so I'm hopeful it will fix all the rest. I keep coming back to Unicolor since it is cheap and easy. It is a good system, although there are a few things to learn, but I'm sure that is true with JOBO or any other system. I agree with John about 8X10 sheets being a tight fit into the 11X14 drums. I had been doing 5X7s in an 8X10 drum which are a looser fit. When I was in the dark trying to get the first 8X10 sheet loaded, I wondered if I was wrong about it fitting. However, once the sheet is started into the drum, it slips on in quite easily.