Sticky residue on film

[AussieDan]

Hello, gurus of large format!

I'm still a newbie at doing my own developing. The first times I did it, it went great. This time, the drying stage left a thick, sticky residue. I thought I had used too much wetting agent (and I was right... I used the manufacturer's recommended dilution, which was too much) but I washed only in clean (non-distilled) water on the next one and still got the sticky residue. I even tried my squeegee and it just seems to make the stickiness spread. On another negative, I also tried a pre-soak in water.

I know film is soft before being dry... but one I dried 45 minutes ago is still tacky.

Details:
Efke PL100M 4x5 (tray-developed)
Ilford LC29 5 minutes at 20 degrees Celcius, agitated first 10 seconds of every minute
Ilfostop 10 seconds (is this too short??? it worked last time!)
Ilford rapid fixer 8 mins.
Ilford wetting agent (1+201 as per manufacturer's specs) - most negs for a short soak, one neg for a long soak. No difference. Also tried no wetting agent.


Any advice much appreciated.

Dan

[rince]

Hello, gurus of large format!



I know film is soft before being dry... but one I dried 45 minutes ago is still tacky.


Dan

Hm, how did you dry your film? Mine takes several hours to dry so 45 min sounds a little short to me, if you are not using any drying cabinets or such. Never the less, it should not really be sticky. Wet and soft yes, as it takes the gelatin some time to dry down.
Wetting agent would have been my guess, but. You said that you washed some film just in water without the wetting agent. Are you sure you are washing your film properly after the fix? How long and how are you washing it? Are you using HCA or any other washing aids?

[Jim Noel]

Is the film still tacky upon drying completely? If not, don't worry about it.
Your Ilfostop time is too short - go to 30-6- seconds. Plain water is sufficient for this step.

[AussieDan]

Ah... I think I know what happened... It has gotten quite cold here (well, cold by our standards!) recently and drying in the open air would take quite a bit longer. I just checked the negs and there's no sticky residue on them. Excellent!

I also wash the film for a couple of minutes by moving the film through a sink full of water and spraying water over it with a small hose with a shower head attachment.

Thanks for the advice... I'll be looking at increasing the time in the stop bath, too!

Thanks :-)