Caffenol...What Went Wrong?

Ok, so apparently "Tide" is caustic soda...'cause I got blank negatives too.

Either that, or 35 years of loading cameras and I'm still flubbing it (not impossible).
 
I did ask if sodium bicarbonate would be twice as good, but didn’t get a sensible answer, and apparently in this chemistry one shouldn’t make the coffee with boiling water
 
Ok...so what product, available in the US, will do the trick?

My kingdom for washing soda...or at least for someone who can tell me what the heck it is.
 
You need this

folgers_pic.jpg


and this

washingsoda.jpg


and this

Nature_Made_Vitamin_C.jpg


to get this

410820636_bcb5ae949b.jpg


410821934_0dfb828b82.jpg
 
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Luke, that is the most clear, vivid and illustrative post I've ever seen on film development 🙂

Thanks a lot! (looking for a smily-face icon with thumbs up...)
 
I don't believe I have ever seen that Arm and Hammer product in my life...and I do the shopping in the house.
Is it baking soda? Is it laundry detergent?
 
I had to search my entire city to find washing soda. One grocery store (Cub Food) carried it in the area near the laundry detergent.

Back in the old days, people used to add it to their detergent to give it a kick. Present-day, nobody really uses it anymore.

Just us crazy film people and the hotrodders use it to remove rust from car parts with electrolysis.

It's very cheap (under two dollars.)
 
I had the same problem. I couldn't fine washing soda anywhere. I eventually discovered that sodium carbonate is also sold as "PH-up" which is used for increasing the PH levels in pools and spas. It is readily available at any pool supply store. I found it at home depot.

PH up ingredients...
 
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My understanding is that the trick it to get the solution’s Ph high enough to neutralise both the acid in the coffee and the acid produced when the silver reacts with the caffeine during the developing, so lots of stuff should work.

PS Word of caution handling and mixing some alkalines are lethal, always add the alkaline to water, not the other way round they can generate a lot of heat very quickly
 
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I should mention that I did this just to prove I could.

The results were not impressive, and my paterson tank smelled horrible for weeks afterwards and my reels stained brown.

coffee + washing soda = smelly.. like rancid urine smelly.

It's cheaper to use Rodinal than it is to make Caffenol-C.
 
Washing soda is sodium carbonate. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Caustic soda is sodium hydroxide (lye) and it gets very hot when you add it to water. These things are NOT interchangeable (well, sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide can both make your developer more alkaline, but the proportions are very different for the same change in pH).

In New York I've found washing soda at supermarkets in Latino neighborhoods. A box of washing soda is way more than you'll use any time soon developing film, so try it in your laundry. It works!
 
dazedgonebye said:
I don't believe I have ever seen that Arm and Hammer product in my life...and I do the shopping in the house.
Is it baking soda? Is it laundry detergent?
Click to expand...

No, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate.

Washing soda is sodium carbonate.

Any large supermarket should have the Arm & Hammer washing soda. It will be along with detergents and cleaners, usually on the end, with borax and all of that stuff.

Back when I took HS chemistry (I do not want to admit how long ago this was, or why I remember all of this) Tide was essentially a mixture of sodium carbonate and trisodium phosphate. This was right before the "phosphate free" days of the 1970s, and I really don't know what the current formula of any detergents are.
 
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