Please don't blame me for (endlessly-) repeating myself, but I would suggest to spray sparingly some Ballistol gun oil in the rims where the dark slides are stuck.
This gun oil easily penetrates into the tiny surface structure and solves/dislodge what causes the sticking (ask the hunters).
Ballistol isn't that greasy (mineral oil), is very fine, drys without sticking, doesn't gum by aging and can be easily cleaned away with a little lighter fuel on a Q-tip.
Heating seems like a good idea, though I would place the holders in the sun for uniform heating. Alternating heat and cold is a common unsticking strategy. And if you have an orbital sander, a bit of vibration applied via and intermediate sheet of wood could help.
cowanw brings up a good point on whether there's film in the holder, aside from it shifting and getting trapped
in the darkslide groove the holder may have gotten wet and if there was film loaded it may have glued the darkslides.
If you have a air compressor ( not canned air ) direct an air stream all around the rebate edge of the darkslide and
and down the handle end. The air pressure might separate the grip of whatever is holding the darkslide in.
Giving the film holder a light twist like wringing a towel along with blasting air might break the hold of what ever
is gripping the darkslide.
Alternately you can use a thin flat tool and run it in the groove that the darkslide is in to see the extent
of the jam, an iSesamo ( google it ) tool would work well, I find it indispensable for odd jobs.
When you do get the darkslides out, clean the groove, and the edges of the darkslide.
Clean lukewarm water seems less invasive to me than a hairdryer which may bend the slides irreversible
Now, after reading these posts again, I recall that a very longtime time ago, I slid a sheet wrongly into the rim for the dark slide instead of the film holding rim, and then pushed the slide in, which was hard, and then to late realising I did it wrong. Don't ask how I managed...
This resulted in blocking the slide, needing quite a lot of force to pull it out again.
Luckily it was 4"x5" and not 8"x10" which must be harder to pull the dark slide then...
As usual, it all happend in a hurry, which is bad while loading film holders, I know...
Last edited by phdgent; 4-Oct-2024 at 22:55. Reason: typo
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks