First major ooops

[Anthony Martinez]

So there I am, standing in my blacked out closet trying to feed a roll of Ilford HP5+ (120 format) to one of my plastic reels. Not a terribly unusual position to find myself in. I did two rolls of Fujicolor Pro 400H just the other day. Today it was almost like I had no idea what I was doing. The film just didn’t seem to want to go onto the reel. I am a man. No plastic reel will kick my butt. No sir. Not ever.

I forced it.

That thing that usually happens when a man gets frustrated and forces something? Yeah it happened. The film got stuck. No problem, I’ll just back it out and start over again. Big problem. The reel was so pissed at me that it refused to give the film back in one piece. Riiiiiiiiiiipppppppppp.

I managed to find another reel in the dark and get the long part of the roll fed into it. Somehow, I also got the short part of the roll fed as well. Instead of moving on to my second roll, I flipped on the lights and realized the roll I’d ripped as the last roll of my Boston film. Not the roll I was hoping. There was some loud profanity.

Fortunately, the rip wasn’t in a particularly interesting photo. The shot Meg took of me survived. The shots I took of her survived. I got some tape and stuck the two pieces back together. Exciting. It may be time to look at metal reels?

[Daniel W.]

I like the rip in the frame of the rope, nice contrast of lines. You can call it "fine art"!

As far as steel goes, some live by them (as long as you don't bend em!) but I never really caught onto it - the plastic always seemed so easy, especially when 9/10 tries with steel resulted in uneven development (negs touching). (Aristia premium plastics, with the large "landing" tab, not the cheaper ones with the small tabs)

One cool thing is that you can double-load with steel, two rolls with the emulsion sides facing out. Not something you can do easily with plastic as it gets too thick and the sprocket holes cause havoc. I was able to do it once on plastic with a custom-load of 12 exp. Not worth the trouble though.

[The Philos]

I just ordered 3x120 stainless steel reels from Hewes for my Jobo - I loathe the plastic Jobo reels.

[KJ Smith]

I will use either.

Most of the time I use plastic so I can run it through the processor.

It also uses about 1/2 the chemicals that way.


On the plastic, make sure they are dry. A wet reel will not work.

I will also clip the corners on the lead side. That can make all the difference in the world.


Steel loads much faster, for me, but you have to be careful not to pinch the film.

[wclavey]

I think Kevin has it right on all 3 counts... get a corner clipper from the craft shop and trim the leading corners round... the $10 is well worth the aggravation it saves. Of course, make sure they are dry. And I think that loading 120 on steel reels is about the easiest film loading you will ever do... for some reason, it is really simple with little chance for a screw-up. I just wish I could find steel reels with a center whole wide enough to drop onto the center column of my big Jobo tank - - I can put Paterson reels on it in addition to the Jobo reels, but not steel reels.

[KJ Smith]

I just use scissors.

Clip at a 45.

[The Philos]

Originally Posted by wclavey

I think Kevin has it right on all 3 counts... get a corner clipper from the craft shop and trim the leading corners round... the $10 is well worth the aggravation it saves. Of course, make sure they are dry. And I think that loading 120 on steel reels is about the easiest film loading you will ever do... for some reason, it is really simple with little chance for a screw-up. I just wish I could find steel reels with a center whole wide enough to drop onto the center column of my big Jobo tank - - I can put Paterson reels on it in addition to the Jobo reels, but not steel reels.

Hewes - I just ordered from them directly.

[KJ Smith]

Originally Posted by ThePhilosopher

Hewes - I just ordered from them directly.

Will they fit the 2500 series tank?

I know they make them for the 1500.

[The Philos]

From their June 2010 Pricelist:
NEW 120 with 1” Centre Core Jobo 1500 or Patterson Tanks………….…….. £16.15
NEW 120/220 with 1” Centre Core Jobo 2500 Tanks………………..……….…£32.27

[wclavey]

Excellent! Too bad that works out to $45 or $50 each...

[The Philos]

**Knocks on wood**I've never had any problems with my 1500 series reels in my 2500 tanks; that may change with the stainless steel - I'll try a bit and report back; YMMV of course.

[wclavey]

Aren't they narrower, so that you have to use more liquid? I have the Jobo 2500/2800 series and the Jobo 4300 series and they are different diameters... I can use the Paterson reels in the 4300 series - - they are about 1/2 inch narrower than the Jobo 4300 reels, but the standard liquid amounts still cover them... but If I use them in the 2500 series tanks the liquid won't. But I'm not sure about the 1500 reel diameters - - it sounds like what you posted above says that they are the same size as the Paterson reels. But perhaps you do not use the Jobo 2500 as a roller tank with reduced liquid?

[The Philos]

I do, but as I said in my voicemail I up the amount of liquid by about 10%. I'll let you know how the Hewes stainless steel reels for Jobo 1500 series do in the 2500 series tanks. I always do rotation developing on my CPE2+.

[wclavey]

David, I was out most of the day, but I got your message... I'm anxious to hear how they work.

[The Philos]

PS: I only have 1500 series reels currently and they worked fine in my Multitank 5; when these arrive from England I'll do some testing.