Paterson Orbital : polypropylene sheet adapter

[ramon]

This is a new "state of the art" modification for Paterson orbital (really an adapter) to avoid film sticking into the base.

A black sheet of polypropylene (registered trademark Plakene) is used to avoid any damage in the orbital base.

This polypropylene sheet can have holes to allow red pins attaching into the base as with normal operation.

There is also a corner clip to allow easy extraction of polypropylene sheet.

This allows any temporal modification without damage to our precious Paterson Orbital.

http://213.251.184.113/largeformatphotography/orbital_polypropylene.jpg



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Background of the invention:

A) roughening the base:

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps%20how%20orbital.html

B) aplying silicone or epoxy directly into the base:

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=119

C) Fixing plastic guides directly into the base

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34352840@N02/3487473339/

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[welly]

Nice modification. I did something similar(ish) except I'm not using a plastic sheet but used stick-on rubber/plastic domes that can easily be removed if necessary but have stayed well put in the base of the Paterson Orbital for many, many sheets of film now.

[Tim Meisburger]

I scratched mine up. Do you have any problem retaining chemicals under the sheet?

I wish they still made these. Don't know what I would do if I ever broke mine.

[welly]

I bought a second one fairly recently as a backup "just in case" as my current one has been performing so well. I'm getting great negatives from it. Not having any problem with retaining chemicals under the sheet, however I agitate it by hand, so to speak. I'm not using the motor base or the manual base and just flip it around in my hand. It's working really well for me.

I did this to my Paterson:

129014

It works a treat.

[Tim Meisburger]

Nice. I had mine several years before I bought the motor base. I like it! I also use mine with the manual base to develop prints. It fits easier in the small closet I call my darkroom, and of course uses less chemicals.

[welly]

Yeah, I'm developing with Ultrafin at the moment at 1/20 dilution so using 10ml of developer and 50ml of Ilford fixer. It's definitely very economical. I'm thinking of utilising my spare as a print processor, as is it's original design. Basically have no room for a proper darkroom so I shall be contact printing with a 35mm enlarger as a light source and doing 4x5 and 8x10 contact prints. How do you get on with it as a print processor/developer? Any tips?

[Tim Meisburger]

No, nothing special. I just use it as an open tray under the safelight, pouring chemicals in and out in the normal way, just without the cover on top. Using the one tray method is easy with the orbital. I make the print under the enlarger, then put it in the tray, pour in the developer (70ml) and orbit for one minute, then pour it out and pour in stop for ten turns, then pour it out and pour in fixer and orbit for one minute, then pour out the fixer, open the door and take the print to the sink to wash. I make sure I was the tray well before the next print so I don't have residual fix, but that is really quick under running water. For timing I use a metronome app on my cell phone and just count seconds.

[welly]

Brilliant, thanks for the advice. I didn't even think about using it as an open tray. Makes sense though. My enlarger should arrive next week and I've got some negatives to contact print with it so I'll try out what you're doing.

Cheers!

[Regular Rod]

Ha! I chop mine without mercy as I'm only going to use them for sheet film. :D

http://freepdfhosting.com/f640343f29.pdf

All the bugs ironed out and ideal for stand and semi-stand development.

RR