Developing: Uniroller Base

[roscoetuff]

So I've wondered and looked and it's curious that a number of folks have written here and there that they have motorized their agitation using a Uniroller Base to roll, reverse direction, and continue rolling for B&W. Seems these things were made for color... just to make it confusing, but sounds as though the idea is aimed at doing something similar (but much lower tech) than a Jobo... which I have only vague ideas about what they do.

But recognizing that the new Kickstarter project "Lab Box" is a constant hand wound development process.... I'm curious about the whole. I've kept reading and seen that some folks who bought Jobo's eventually stopped using them for anything other than the motor. Theory has it that a motor controlled process would give more repeatable results, but the annecdotal reports seem to suggest the degree of difference between mechanical and a solid hand routine is less than meets the eye.

For my part, I'm curious... especially could see benefits in using higher dilution, longer development times in terms of freeing your hands up. More curious whether anyone out there in rangefinder forum land has been down these roads sufficient to have an opinion or especially experience they can share insight on? The roller bases are pretty cheap compared to a full Jobo machine!

 

[shawn]

I have a Uniroller base and use it. It is nice to be able to just put the film on the base and let it be agitated automatically and consistently. It frees you up to do something else while it is agitating. A smaller Paterson or Jobo tank doesn't really fit the base all that well. I use a piece of 4" PVC pipe on the base and then fit my tank into the pipe.

For color you won't want a Paterson tank on the Uniroller. The Blix stage outgases and will either pop the cover off or make it leak. Even the Jobo tanks (with the expansion lid) will begin to leak sometimes with Blix on the Uniroller. I think there are Uniroller tanks that would get around this (they are open on the end) but I never bothered to hunt them down.

For B&W rotary you can use half the chemistry of a typical roll.

Having said that for my last few rolls of B&W I have been playing with stand developing and enjoying the results too. Quicker to setup and get processing too.

Shawn

 

[roscoetuff]

shawn: Thanks btw. I'm using Patterson tanks. Like your idea. Only doing B&W at the moment. Any odd things to report? Do you use the roller for Stop and Fix Baths as well? Reading suggests you cut times 15% for the roller. Do you? And (lastly) do you use any shims on the PVC between the inside and your tanks?

 

[taemo]

i use a uniroller and jobo 2800 drums to develop my color and b&w film for the past couple of years.
works great since im pretty consistent on film and developer that i use (hc-110).
because the roller is always agitating, dont forget to knock off 10% off your developing time.

 

[shawn]

shawn: Thanks btw. I'm using Patterson tanks. Like your idea. Only doing B&W at the moment. Any odd things to report? Do you use the roller for Stop and Fix Baths as well? Reading suggests you cut times 15% for the roller. Do you? And (lastly) do you use any shims on the PVC between the inside and your tanks?

I don't bother with the roller for stop but I do use it for fixing. I don't shorten developing time but I am using half the developer. I use HC110. Negatives come out well that way for standard dilutions. Dilution H with half the developer didn't work well IME.

No shims between the PVC and the tank. If you have them a pair of large rubber bands around the PVC (slightly wider than the rollers) will help to keep the PVC from moving around on the rollers. Your pipe needs to be a little longer than you will expect to counteract the weight of the tank.

Shawn

 

[roscoetuff]

So I've run this a bit and had some issues. Wonder whether you guys have seen any uneven development? Center of the image looks great, but on the edges it's less so, but not on the whole roll. Puzzling.

Possible issues: XTOL... where I used a pre-wash (I usually do this to get the magenta off 120). Also, I wondered whether the lack of an head-over-heels inversion might have been the issue. Last time, I added this and it helped, but it made me skittish of the whole thing.

I've thought another possible cause is the fact that with a Paterson tank, when the tank is on it's side, the chemistry can run out of the sides of the funnel lid and fill the space to the cap, lower the fluid in the tank. It is also possible that with a full load of chemistry, the resistance of the fluid causes resistance so that the reels turn a lot less than expected within the tank. Less chemistry might address this I think, but that's a theory. Shawn's practice of using half the chemistry for standard time (rather than shortened) might address this... who who knows the effect?

Another possible solution is to jettison the Paterson tanks in favor of Arista(?) or Jobo with more rigid tops or some sort of lid that does not leak chemistry into the funnel chamber. I think this would be the case for a Jobo tank, but don't know if the same would be true for Arista tanks.

So I'm a bit paused on this at the moment and using the Uniroller mostly for the Stop, Fix, Wash and Photoflow cycles. Suggestions welcome. Thanks!