Hi Folks,

I am working towards being able to develop 14x17 x-ray film at home. I am thinking of fabricating dip & dunk tanks out of stainless steel and am looking for advice from people who have experience processing film this way.

It doesn't seem like this is done very often, so I guess my first question is whether there's a cheap (e.g. plastic or used) alternative. Some time spent searching the internet didn't turn up anything. I think there's $20-$30 of steel in each tank, so buying makes sense up to some multiple of that.

Assuming I am going to build these, I would love design advice.

I was thinking capacity to do 4 at a time would be sufficient given the scale of these negatives. From the dimensions of Arkay 8x10 tanks, it looks like they are usually slightly longer (1") and significantly deeper (2.5") than the negative and have about 0.4" width per negative capacity. That would give me 15" x 19.5" x 1.75", which is just about 2 gal volume. Maybe the final wash tank should be wider so negatives can pile up there?

I was thinking of adding a bung to bottom of the stop and rinse tanks so I can flow water up through them for washing.

Thanks in advance,
Sam