The Darkroom Chemical Pot of Gold!!

[Steve Karr]

Hi everyone,
I just inherited Many bags of chemicals from a friend.

So ... what do you think about the "usability/freshness" of some of these old bags of dry chemicals? They are still sealed, with no sign of "seeping" in of moisture. They are discolored in spots and have that aged bag look. They are the paper looking ones, not the sexy plastic bags.

And if I do make up a gallon of these developers (say D-19) how long can I expect it to last if handled with the proper bottles & such?

I have:

Microdol X 10 1 gal packs
DK-50 18 1 gal packs
D-19 13 1 gal packs
Those are the easy ones ...

Hardening Fixer 3 5 gal boxes
D-76 1 10 gal box (two part)
Dektol 1 5 gal box
(can I break these up into manageable measure, or is it to be made all at once?)


I also have 8 lbs of balanced alkali .... what's that for??

Many Farmers reducers, 2 part toners & some Potassium ferricyanide & dichromate.

So 10 gal of D76 & 5 gal of fixer ... how do you manage this volume of soup?

Thanks!
Steve

 

[Keith]

I'm sure Marty (freakscene) will be able to tell all you need to know if he spots this thread!

 

[ed1k]

make 10 gal of soup and split it into many small cola bottles. label it including date when you make the soup. store in cool and dark place like basement. should work for years.
cheers,
ed

 

[maddoc]

Potassium ferricyanide and dichromate .... Usage of the latter is banned from many chemical laboratories at universities (including my former lab where we made a solution of potassium dichromate in concentrated sulfuric acid to clean glass) due to it`s carcinogenicity. Be very careful when using this stuff and wear proper eye protection and gloves.

Potassium ferricyanide is less harmful EXCEPT when dissolved in acids... under acidic conditions it reacts to gaseous HCN, hydrogen cyanide (extremely toxic).

 

[Fotch]

(can I break these up into manageable measure, or is it to be made all at once?)

No, designed to be made all at once. Sure, some have done this, and it worked, however, film and time is to expensive to add this risk to ones film.

Best to mix all at once, then store in many small bottles, filled to the brim.

Have fun.

 

[Fawley]

Balanced alkali, or Kodak Kodalk , is a mild developer accelerator. Its used in the DK 50 formula, which you already have a lifetime supply of. I don't know of other standard formulas that use Kodalk, but you could have a lot of fun experimenting.

 

[Freakscene]

I'm sure Marty (freakscene) will be able to tell all you need to know if he spots this thread!

Thanks Keith. Mix the large packets all at once and split it up into airtight bottles.

The first thing to do, however, is to get a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for each product and read it. You have some fairly hazardous chemicals there. Second, get a relevant book on photochemistry or do some internet searches and figure out what they are all for.

Kodalk is handy for using as the second bath in divided developers: http://leica-users.org/v02/msg05860.html or pseudo-divided developers:
http://leica-users.org/v10/msg07140.html
http://leica-users.org/v13/msg12048.html



Marty

 

[ChrisN]

Great site for photo chemistry information:

http://www.jackspcs.com/index.htm

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Someone gave me some old bags of D76, the half-gallon size packs, a couple yrsago. the old paper packs, dated from the 1990s most likely. They worked identically to new D76 I compared them against. So long as the packs are still sealed and no moisture or air got in they're likely ok. Test with a roll of unimportant pics first!

 

[Chris101]

Hey Steve,

Buy your self some jars to store the dry chemicals in (for the most part they will stay good indefinitely when kept dry.) Then get a balance that goes to 0.1 gram (like this one) and mix smaller (say 1L) batches of the chemistry for use.

Balanced alkali is a self buffering chemical (NaBO2) used in several photographic concoctions such as pyro developer.

 

[Chris101]

Oh, and both K3Fe(CN)6 and K2Cr2O7 are oxidizers, which will bleach a silver image. The dichromate is stronger than the ferricyanide. Both are toxic, as previously mentioned, and should be disposed of after use by a chemical waste handler.

Your hardening fixer will have a small bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid (the hardener) and that is the stuff not to mix with the potassium ferricyanide. The reaction that produces HCN (cyanide gas) is slow and flushing it with water will quench the reaction.

 

[Freakscene]

Buy your self some jars to store the dry chemicals in (for the most part they will stay good indefinitely when kept dry.) Then get a balance that goes to 0.1 gram (like this one) and mix smaller (say 1L) batches of the chemistry for use.

The different powder components have different grain sizes and do not mix evenly. if you do this the different batches will have different activity. I've tried it.

Marty

 

[degruyl]

Balanced alkali, or Kodak Kodalk , is a mild developer accelerator. Its used in the DK 50 formula, which you already have a lifetime supply of. I don't know of other standard formulas that use Kodalk, but you could have a lot of fun experimenting.

It is also used in PMK Pyro (the K bit), which is a staining developer. I believe it is one of those things people buy a bucket of and have stored in their basement and never use. You might find a use or an outlet for it by checking with the folks at APUG, or by perusing one of Steve Achell's books.