Film Dryer

[dfoo]

Tired of dust getting on my negatives I built myself a film dryer on Sunday. It consists of a piece of a 4 foot piece of 4" PVC tube, a 100 watt light bulb and an old CPU fan put on the top of the pipe, sealed with a cereal box and a filter made of some J cloths. The film goes in the bottom still on the reels held up with a chopstick that goes through two holes in the bottom.

I tried it last night, and despite being worried that the film might be overly curly after drying, 45 minutes later I got dust free and relatively curl free negatives! The two reels I dried contained TMAX 100, and Arista Premium 100.

I'm a happy camper right now!

Thats a shot from the roll of TMAX. Leica M4P, 50mm Summicron f2, taken at f5.6, 1/125.

 

[Q-dog]

Did you just put the reels in the dryer directly after rinsing? No problems with watermarks after drying? I think I could use a dryer myself.

/Ola

 

[dfoo]

I use one drop of photoflo. I took the film from the tank, shook the excess water off the reels, and put them directly in the dryer. Out of the ~78 exposures I had a single water bead on one negative. I guess there was a still a drop of water somewhere on the reel, which transferred to the film as I was unloading it. Next time I'll dry 15 minutes longer.

 

[Tom A]

Use some distilled and filtered water as a final rinse - just dunk the reels in it for 30-60 sec and shake them off.
I also suggest that you put the fan at the bottom of the tube - that will "draw" the water off, rather than "push" it off. Be careful with the 100 W bulb as you can get excess heat and partial melting of the emulsion (The Capa Syndrome). With a bottom mount fan and a top mounted filter ( you can use a motorcycle or Honda Civic airfilter - just stick it on top and make a coverplate so the the air is forced through the filter only) - you should have dry film in about 75-90 minutes, without the risk of overheating.

 

[mwooten]

Tom,
Are you saying to do away with the light bulb, and just use the room temp air?

 

[ElectroWNED]

sort of off-topic here, but how do you get your negatives to not curl?

I give mine a minute soak in Photoflo before placing in a film dryer for ~10 minutes. They end up curling like crazy after I cut them into 5 frame segments... 🙁

 

[dfoo]

Thanks for the advise. With my setup due to the length of the pipe there is no risk of overheating, at least in the winter time 🙂 The air flowing out of the bottom of the tube is perhaps 30C. If the fan is placed the bottom isn't there a risk of the dripping water ruining the fan over time?

 

[dfoo]

ElectroWNED, I didn't do anything. The negatives were really not very curly. In fact, if anything they are less curly than when I hung dried them! However, this is the first time I've used the Arista and TMAX 100, so its possible that with TriX (my regular film) I'll have a different story to report!

 

[ElectroWNED]

ElectroWNED, I didn't do anything. The negatives were really not very curly. In fact, if anything they are less curly than when I hung dried them! However, this is the first time I've used the Arista and TMAX 100, so its possible that with TriX (my regular film) I'll have a different story to report!

I meant in general...

I am shooting TMax 400 and it doesn't curl nearly as bad as HP5

😕

 

[dfoo]

What I did my my curly negatives is sleeve them, and then put them between a couple of heavy books on top of a radiator for a few hours. They generally are pretty straight within a day or so.

 

[ElectroWNED]

alright... I usually have to print soon after developing, so I guess I'll just take a few minutes and pancake them between books until they flatten out!

 

[ItsReallyDarren]

I made a similar film drying contraption but the film hangs to dry instead of on the reel.

I bought a clothes hanging bag from Ikea. Mounted it in the bathroom and placed a small bar hanging on the inside. When Im done developing I take the film and hang it in the bag, zip it up and come back the next morning. Works pretty good so far.

 

[Tom A]

Tom,
Are you saying to do away with the light bulb, and just use the room temp air?

With continious airflow from the fan - they will dry in an hour or two. It does depend on the ambient humidity though. In tropical/sub tropical weather (high humidity) it might take a bit longer. The lamp could be used - but I would reduce the wattage - maybe a 60 watt bulb instead. 30+ is "hot" in film speak!

 

[Tom A]

If the fan is placed the bottom isn't there a risk of the dripping water ruining the fan over time?

Just put the fan in a T crossing so that it draws the air out side ways and excess water will simply go straight down into a closed end. After your films are done, simply turn it upside down and drain the water out or unscrew the bottom cap! I used something like that for many years - an Ikea kitchen cabinet - shallow depth. An airfilter on the top - a fan on the side at the bottom and a small tray at the bottom for catching the water drops. Simple and unobtrusive - and as the films were suspended full length they tended to curl a bit less. Arista/Tri X/Agfapan tends to curl like crazy and need to be stored "under pressure" to go flat. One of the things I like about the XX movie stock is that it dries flat!

 

[dfoo]

Ah, perfect idea! If I want to improve my current rig I'll keep that in mind!

 

[dazedgonebye]

We have good and bad news for film drying here in AZ.
The good news is that it only takes about 30 minutes at most for a film to dry. The bad news is that it is dust h3ll here!
I hang them in a closet, but have to walk across the house to get the film there. I'm always fighting dust.

 

[jooklee]

With regards to curling, does anyone know what the cause is?

My main film is Arista Premium 400 and it curls while hanging (with weighted film clips), especially in the winter when it's pretty dry in my apartment. I don't have this problem with Tri X or HP5.

 

[Keith]

Just nit picking here but the original posted shot of the beautiful dog is the exact type of image that is least affected by dust spots IMO. Images shot at night with a lot of dark or black areas in them are the ones that drive me insane ... every minute particle on that scanned negative will look like a football after you've been staring at it for a while. 😛

One thing I've learned to do is once I've hung a negative to dry get out of the room and close the door. I made the mistake of hanging a couple of negs to dry last week and then pottering around in the room I dry them in ... the human body is large and warm and as it moves around it swirls up lovely air currents just laden with dust waiting to hit a sticky surface!

An interesting experiment is to place a nice curly piece of 35mm film a few inches long on it's edge somewhere around your house then watch it dramatically curl and uncurl as the humidity level changes with the weather. 🙂

 

[Al Kaplan]

I made a film dryer based on the Senrac design back in the 1960's. It blows filtered air down through the S.S. reels. My Gralab timer, which I use to time my film development, is mounted on the wall at the end of the sink. The dryer is plugged into the timer so I can set it and leave. If I'm in a hurry I just hold a hand held hair dryer aimed at the filter on the film dryer for a few minutes.

Hanging the film overnight gets rid of most of the curl. When I'm in a rush I'll take the film off of the reel before it's really bone dry and put it back on the reel emulsion side out for another five minutes or so in the dryer.

 

[chris91387]

regarding curl: i hang a clothespin on the end of the film. i've always done this and have never had a problem with curl before.

- chris