Cutting film from a 9.5inch x 250 foot roll

[Bogdan Karasek]

I recently acquired a roll of Double-XX film in a roll measuring 9.5 inches x 250 feet. I want to use the film in 8x10 holders. What would be the best way to cut 8in of film from the 250 foot roll, taking into consideration that all this must be done in my darkroom, in the dark?????.... I do have a rotary cutter.

I'm open to all suggestions.

[MartinP]

The roll is aerial camera film presumably. As the width is so close to 10", I would think of making a film-retaining lip at the bottom (ie. film insertion end) of the DDS and accept that the negs will be 8x9,5" rather than 8x10". Some sticky tape with plastic or ply from a modelmaking store should be enough to stop the film bowing at the end while allowing the darkslide to pass over it. I am thinking that you can insert the film, then place your dummy film-retaining lip, and then fold over the door on the film-holder and return the slide. In theory that should work?

That leaves you one cut to make with your rotary cutter for 375 sheets of film. Adding some sort of card template to the cutter for length should be do-able, I suppose. A mat-cutter with a straight-edge alignment arm and stops etc. might be able to do the job directly if you could borrow one. Good luck!

[HMG]

I've been using some roll paper for contact prints. The curl makes it more difficult to cut and impossible to use in an easel (perhaps a vacuum easel would work). Though I haven't tried flattening it over an extended period. The mass of paper makes alignment along the "stop" of the paper cutter more difficult than I expected.

So, given that the film is much more valuable than my roll of paper, I could consider building a 2-3ft "runway" with guides on both sides. At one end a roller to hold the roll of film and the rotary cutter at the other end. A stop on the bed of the cutter could be set for 8".

But if the curl is such that the emulsion is on the outside, quite a bit of flattening may be necessary to use in a CFH.

[onnect17]

I am familiar with cutting aerial film. Facing the same issue, I built a simple base to cut in segments 4 and 8 inches wide. Some pics follow:

[IMG]

Nothing sophisticated but it does the job.