5x7/13x18 daylight processing

[Rick A]

I'm quite content to process a pair of 5x7 negatives at a time in my Unicolor drums with a self reversing Uniroller base I have four 8x10 drums and can handle 4x5 through 8x10 negatives, I also have a pair of 11x14 drums sitting in a box somewhere. I down sized from a Jobo CPE-2 w/lift and a ton of accessories years ago and am happy I did. Keeping it simple.

[Fred L]

If you can save up for the Jobo 3006, that would be ideal. Otherwise my suggestion would be to find Simma 8x10 processing and end caps for daylight processing. I used this for 8x10 for a long time and now use the caps with ABS tubes for processing 7x17 film.

[Carl J]

re. "poor man's JOBO": When processing 4 sheets of 8x10 in the 16x20 Unicolor drum what do you use to separate the sheets vertically from each other? I have one of the little rubber separators but it's deteriorating (might have tried it once with 4x5 film in the 8x10 drum); also do you have any problems scratching film sliding it in-and-out to the lower half of the drum?

Also, do you have any problems with leaky caps with the Unicolor drums? I've traced the original 'seals' onto x-ray film and cut out replacements, a bit tedious and can work for a time but not the greatest solution.

Thanks.

With my 2500 Multitank JOBO roll film drums, and the 8x10 Unicolor Print Drums, the unmodified Uniroller with reversing mechanism is mighty handy and has never disappointed. I recently bought another Uniroller cheaply (WOW they are expensive now!), and I disabled the reversing mechanism inside. Easy to do. I have a Chromega Roller too, that works a charm with my JOBO 3012 9x12cm Eight Sheet Film Drum, the Chromega also doesn't reverse. But I do have to lift and flip the drum direction by hand during processing. The 3012 is quite rare and usually uber expensive. Bought it on German Ebay and it wasn't easy to do but worth it. The 11x14 Unidrum is simply a scaled-up version of the 8x10, and will hold four 5x7 sheets. And the Uniroller works perfectly with the bigger Unicolor Drums. BTW the 16x20 will process process four 8x10 sheets cleanly on a Uniroller.

We used to call it "the poor man's JOBO".

[Daniel Unkefer]

https://www.largeformatphotography.info/unicolor/

About half way down in this attachment, note the plastic clamps, from the dollar store. I made a few of these myself, but I've always used the rubber plug pieces to separate sheets in the 8x10 Unidrum, never had any damage I can recall. These should also fit the 16x20 Unidrum I would think. I've not tried the 16x20 Drums I have for 8x10 film, I am looking forward to testing it soon.

[Carl J]

Great info. I appreciate the link.

Thanks!

https://www.largeformatphotography.info/unicolor/

About half way down in this attachment, note the plastic clamps, from the dollar store. I made a few of these myself, but I've always used the rubber plug pieces to separate sheets in the 8x10 Unidrum, never had any damage I can recall. These should also fit the 16x20 Unidrum I would think. I've not tried the 16x20 Drums I have for 8x10 film, I am looking forward to testing it soon.

[Joseph Kashi]

B&W king tanks, similar to Nikkor 4x5 tank from decades ago..
http://www.bw-king.com


Bernice

+1 on the 5x7 BW King stainless steel daylight tanks and reels. They hold six sheets and work great, basically like oversized 35mm/120 SS tanks. The only current source seems to be the link Bernice posted. I found that they work best as traditional inversion tanks rather than using the built-in rotation mechanism, which sometimes causes 5x7 film sheets to dislodge.

These tanks can also be used to process 4x5 film when the 4x5 sheets are loaded on the 5 inch edge.

[John Layton]

Curious about the effectiveness of using the open tank, "lift and twist" method for the BW King tanks. Anyone?

[Joseph Kashi]

I never tried lift and twist as I do semi-stand with XTOL 1:2 and a few inversions and twists every three minutes with the cap on weeks very well with Delta 100. This helps control highlight blocking.

[Yourix]

Hi there
I did some testing with the color drums I bought...(Symma-Color)
With the small one for processing two 13x18 everithing was fine. Good result and even development.

But when I tried the bigger one for four 13x18 things where different : This drum is designed for paper and the inner surface is smooth except for some grooves where you can slide the dividers (for differents paper format). The design is slightly different than the small one.
I did a very classic development routine : presoak with about 1 liter, dev, stop and fix with 400ml (200ml recommended), rinse...
Of course the emulsion wath facing the inside but there was two major isue : The chemical and water couldn't reach efficiently the back of the sheets and there was some anti-halation layer left (green on foma 100) and the grooves mentioned earlier seems to retain the chemicals and it somehow afect the emulsion side by overdeveloppinglocaly (basically I can see a ghost image of the grooves on the sheet, border included).

I'm pretty sure it is because of insufficent liquid circulation between the sheet and the drum. Did anyone of you already dealed with this issue and how ? I think I remember reading something about sanding the inside of the drum with a a very coarse grit ...

(ps: sorry for my english, I reach my limit when trying to explain something like that... Hope it is understandable tho...)

[Daniel Unkefer]

I have a 11x14 Unidrum I have not been able to use so far, it came with no gasket. I just received today another 11x14 black Unidrum II, in perfect condition, with a gasket I can copy out onto brake pad material, I bought a sheet from local auto part store. I can say it works great making replacement gasketing on the 8x10 Unidrums. Use a sharpie marker to mark your pattern, then sharp scissors to cut the break lining material. It Works! and no leaks now ever with that particular 8x10 Unidrum II.

Also I will cobble up some type of plastic clips to keep the sheets from "riding over" during the agitation processor. That's about it, dollar stores used to sell those clips in the link for drying clothes on a hanger. Also Amazon likely source. Plastic spring clothes pin would work too. I hope the 11x14 Unidrum II will neatly process four sheets in a go when shooting 13x18cm sheets...... Know it works OK with 5x7 film

I can't use PMK+ in the Unidrum II, the pyro afterstain showed the interior ribs as "shadowing" I think this happened in the after wash cycle, though. I wash my film in the Unidrum under the faucet, works fine but not with PMK+. That's OK for now for me.