Drying negs?

K

Kyle

Guest
I'm planning on buying chemistry, reels, and tanks and doing my own developing at my house. This way, I won't waste valuable (limited) darkroom time at my university that could be better spent on printing. The only thing is, I'm not sure how to dry the negatives. At my school we have a fancy schmancy negative dryer, so I'm not really sure the method I should use at home. Do I just hang them on a line and let them sit for a few hours? :confused: Thanks in advance for any and all help! :)
 
many set up a line in the bathroom shower.

let the hot water run for a few minutes first and then hang your negs and leave the room, preferably till they dry as it's best not to move too much air around.

joe
 
Thanks for the fast response! I'm sure this answer could vary greatly due to a few different things, but how long does it usually take for them to dry?
 
i live on the prairies and it's very dry here so it takes little time to dry.
i usually just hang them before i go to bed and then they are left alone overnite.

joe
 
I hang negatives on a clothesline (with a clothes pin at the bottom) in my basement (Chicago area) and they typically dry in 35-45 minutes in the winter and an hour in the summer when there's more moisture in the air. I think kodak films (tri-x and plus-x) dry slightly faster than ilford, and 35mm dry faster than 120.
 
I hang then in the shower as well, it's a cabinet type and keeps some humidity so I don't do the previous water run. Even though I usually check them after a while to see what's there, I let them dry overnight. Anyway I have to develop rolls at evening/night anyway, the only time when my darkroom is completely dark !
 
Shower is better and safer than heated film dryers - less curl, less risk of dust. The only drawback is that you can't take a shower while you're drying film!

Quickie tip for how to dry them: buy some spring-type clothespins. Take one, pull up on one leg of the spring, and slip the tail of another one under it. Now you've got double-ended clothespins. Clip one end onto the shower curtain rail and the other end onto the film. Hang another clothespin on the bottom end of the film strip so it won't curl.
 
Drying Negs

Drying Negs

Like all advice posted so far, bathroom at home is a good place, just close any windows. Hang some fishing line and get some wooden spring-loaded clothespins. Also use PhotoFlo after you wash the negs. Dunk reels for thirty seconds, then dunk in water quickly, remove film from reels and hang to dry. I don't recommend squeegeeeing (!); let the PhotoFlo help the water run off it naturally. I never get water spots when I use PFLo and let the negs drip dry. Takes about 1 hour.

Chris
canonetc
 
I too, hang my film in the shower. I made a wooden rack that sits on the top of the tile in the shower and it has clothes pins glued to it. When I hang film to dry I clip two other clothes pins to the bottom of each roll. I have used a squeegee to remove water/photo-flo on the film BUT have quit using it because of scratches that I've seen lately. For now I will continue to just use my fingers...
The shower provides a lint free environment and I can leave them in there overnight to dry.
Years ago when I was younger and a bit impatient I would use a hair dryer to blow the film dry but have found that this could result in more lint on the film and curl from the heat.

In the shower gets my vote...just gotta fight the urge to take a peek at the film while its drying...

Good luck in developing your film and making prints...gotta go my prints are dry...
 
I place a length of 1" OD plastic pipe from the shower curtain rod to the corner of the stall. I then use a pants clothes hanger that has the two strong clips that slide on a wire for different width pants. I hook the hanger over the pipe, clip one end of the film to the hanger and weigh the bottom end with wooden clothes pins.

Before hanging I have a container of water treated with FotoFlow that I run the film through and allow to drain back into the container. It takes about 30 minutes for the film to dry.

Walker
 
I hold the neg strip at a 45 degree angle when it is first out of the wetting agent for a moment or three while most of the water runs down the lower edge and into the sink. Then I hang it as usual. This seems to work pretty well since the only roll that had water spots was the first one when I just hung it up straight out of the tank.

- Randy
 
Some very innovative ideas! Invention follows necessity. I made a support for drying multiple rolls of film at the same time, pictured below. It uses the shower-door top rail for support, and just leans on the wall at the other end.

I use two kinds of clips... One kind is plastic, with molded hooks that go through the sproket holes of 35mm film. Obviously not suitable for 120/220 film! The other kind of clip is a stainless steel spring clip with jaws made to perforate the leader of the film. I have several of each kind, so that I can use one at the top to hang the strip, and another at the bottom for the weight.

I don't use any forced air or heat.
 
Thanks for everyone's advice! I purchased my chemistry and reels (stupid plastic garbage ones that I bought at the advice of the person at the camera shop. They are such a PITA, I should have stuck with stainless steel stuff) and developed my first rolls yesterday. It was much better to be able to do it at the convenience of my own home and not at my school. Also, I need to get myself a timer, my mom didn't appreciate me using the microwave :)
 
The REEL deal

The REEL deal

If you dry your negs on the reel, they will have a curve set to them. If you hang them up with weights, they will dry straight. I suppose clothes pins would work. I have always used film clips made for that purpose. They have little teeth which poke through the film when you clip them on. Plus they have a flange on them which helps to keep the film flat the width ways and they are weighted. Make sure you use deionised water and a wetting agent to prevent spots in the final rinse. I like the ABS tubing idea if you have a dust control problem. Only I would make the tubes about 5 feet long and hang a film strip in the tube with film clips. When I first learned to develope film in Jr. High School, the darkroom used ABS tanks as developing tanks. Three tubes. One each for the dev, stop, and fix. Eliminsted the need for any kind of reels. Remove your film from the can, attatch the film clips and dunk them in. Need to stand around in the dark for about 10 minutes while the film made it to the fixer. But that was not to bad. At home I used the metal reels. Took about 20 minutes with a practice strip of film to master the method. But soon I could roll the film right on. In a dark bag even. Practice is the key.
 
Hi, I'm new in this forum, but I could give you a good tip.
After you took the spool out of the tank and washed it with water, you could squeeze the water out, with an old salat dryer (sling?!?), you know, the centrifugal thing that spinns very quickly. 1-2min after that, you could hang the film in the shower for drying. This method helped me to get better results, with much less dust und the negatives.
Be sure not to dry salat after you used it for film.

Regards
Marc
 
kyle said:
Thanks for everyone's advice! I purchased my chemistry and reels (stupid plastic garbage ones that I bought at the advice of the person at the camera shop. They are such a PITA, I should have stuck with stainless steel stuff) and developed my first rolls yesterday. It was much better to be able to do it at the convenience of my own home and not at my school. Also, I need to get myself a timer, my mom didn't appreciate me using the microwave :)
Click to expand...

Stainless seem easier to use to me but some people prefer the ability to 'walk' the film onto the reel that plastic offers. Be sure that your plastic reels are absolutely dry before reusing them or you could have loading problems.

As for a timer, I picked up two at the grocery store pretty cheaply that work very well, much better than a microwave I would think, but not as inovative as your solution.

- Randy
 
Try pinning them diagonally to help the water drain to the lower edge: a couple of battens at an appropriate distance apart (about a metre or three foot -- it's not critical) are ideal.

Film shrinks as it dries. Pin one end and secure the other with a paper-clip bent in an 'S' and an elastic band going to the other pin.

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
 
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