How do you dry your film

[Desert Shooter]

I develop my film in the kitchen, and then carry it into a seldom used bedroom to hang in the still air. I'm using a wooden dowell intended to be an arrow shaft suspended between some of my wife's nicnaks. It works well, and the negs are mostly dust free. Here are a couple of pix of my custom film drying rack.

 

[back alley]

i hung a metal chan in the basement, between 2 beams of wood. (basement is unfinished) on the chain, i have attached various hangers, clips and whatevers. i attach the film to these and put weights on the bottom of the film to keep from curling (too much).
takes maybe 30 minutes to dry.

 

[rover]

I strung a string from the curtain rod into the closet in the guest bedroom. My mom has twice got herself all hung up in it during visits. 😀

 

[40oz]

I tape a film clip to the shower rod and hang the film, with another clip at the botom to keep it more or less straight. Shut the bathroom door, and just check it every half hour or so.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I have a DIY portable folding film drying cabinet. I bought one of those folding garmet bags with the metal top frame and hooks that have a zippered closure at one of the big discount stores (The one that starts with W).

I cut a piece of 1/4 inch plywood to fit inside the base, attached a 110 volt waterproof light fixture to the center of the plywood where I had previously cut a hole for the electrical cord to pass through. I then cut 4 openings in the plywood about 2 inches in from each corner. I placed this plywood on top of a furnace air filter and inserted the combination onto the floor of the garmet bag. A small slit in the bottom fabric of the bag allows the electrical cord to pass through. I use a 100 watt "Tuffkote" or something like that bulb. These bulbs are designed to be used around construction sites and are water resistant and harder to break.

I hang the garment bag from the shower curtain rod in the bathroom, plug in the light, then hang my film rolls or sheets from wooden clothes pins or patterson film clips from the metal top frames, zip the bag closed. In 20 minutes I have dry dustfree negatives, the light bulb provides enough heat to dry the negatives quickly with out burning them up.

I think I have less than $20 total invested in the gadget. This is probably way more than you wanted to know about how I dry negatives.

Wayne

 

[Diggin99]

I might have to try that Wayne, I live in an older house with high ceilings and the dust is unreal! For now I have been just hanging the negatives from a clip in the bathroom.

Nancy

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I might have to try that Wayne, I live in an older house with high ceilings and the dust is unreal! For now I have been just hanging the negatives from a clip in the bathroom.

Nancy

Yeah, I know the feeling. I live on a country gravel road in an old farm house in Iowa. For a while I thought my favorite indoor color was dust and my favorite outdoor color was rust.

Wayne

 

[charjohncarter]

That's a great idea, I think I'll get one of those bags. I live in a dry climate, so I think I'll try it without the electricity. Thanks Wayne. Dust is everywhere.

 

[kaiyen]

The one problem I've had with the garment bags is that, for the life of me, I can't find one tall enough to hold a 36 exposure roll. I just can't!

So make sure you get one long enough for that, plus any additional items you might put at the bottom (like...some wood with a lightbulb).

Mine worked great for me, and I added a dangling wire mesh type thing to the top so that I could use my clothes hanger clips. I couldn't use them on the wire frame that gives the bag shape, because there wasn't enough room at the top. So I just strung a bunch of wire in several directions. I then used just some duct tape to create "stops" so that the clips couldn't slide too far, and to keep the film from touching. I was able to fit as many as 9 strips of film in there at a time.

I used filtered air from above, rather than heat from below. Took about 45 minutes for me. I just hang dry now. I'm not in a hurry.

allan

 

[pesphoto]

I bought a tall metal cabinet i found at Bed Bath and Beyond.
Took out a shelf that was in there, added a wire from a coat hanger and it works perfectly

 

[tetrisattack]

I use a film drying cabinet with a heated, filtered air supply and timer.

But before that I'd just hang them from a spring tension rod over the bathtub -- dust was seldom a problem.

I've seen interesting plans for drying film on the reel in PVC pipe with a hairdryer / air filter at one end -- we've got a couple of the commercial versions of those on campus, and they can get the film dry in 10-15 minutes ... at the expense of curliness.

 

[Ewoud]

I have this old film drying cabinet I inherited from some guy who stopped developing his own film.. It also has a heater but I never use it cause then the film wil curl more.

I mostly start printing other photo's for an hour or two and by the time I think about the film again its dry 🙂

 

[nightfly]

I used to tie a sting between the shower head the curtain rod till I discovered that just using one of those hangers which comes with a coupla clips and hanging that on the shower rod was much easier. Add another couple of clothes pins for more rolls of film and a couple on the bottom of the film to pull it straight and you are all set for probably 6 rolls at a time if needed. When you're done you can put it away in a closet. No stings to tie and untie. Total cost is probably $2 if you don't have this stuff around.

 

[rich815]

A friend of mine in Thailand hangs his film within a butterfly enclosure in his tropical garden and let's the light, whispy beating of butterfy wings slowly and perfectly bring his negs to even and streak-free dryness.

Not having a butterfly enclosure myself I hang mine in my shower, sometimes running a hot water spray first to fill the bathroom with humidity and mist to help settle any dust out of the air. My negs are fairly dust-free this way.

 

[kully]

I have a door which leads to the loft.

I close it [door], stick a ruler between the door and the top of the frame and hang the film from that with a clothes peg top and bottom to keep 'em straight.

I used to think my dust problems were due to not putting them in the bathroom - but it was all about the wetting agent. I have no dust which can't be removed with a blow.

 

[bob cole]

How do you dry your film

When I was a boy, I found a portable closet in the basement and moved it to where I had set up a darkroom...Then I stretched a wire from one side of the closet to the other to hang the film...

My mother gave me an old, electric steak broiler [like the one below]...

I used just the bottom part, which had a wire grid that heated up and dried the film in about 15 minutes...

 

[Pherdinand]

LOL, that rabbit gave me a chuckle

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

The one problem I've had with the garment bags is that, for the life of me, I can't find one tall enough to hold a 36 exposure roll. I just can't!

allan

This is very true. I had originally thought that I would just shoot a blank frame at exposure 18 and then figure out where to cut the 36 exposure film so that I was cutting through the blank frame. In the real world I never remembered to shoot a blank frame. I mostly bulk load my 35mm now and I only load 30 shots to a roll. With the 30 shot roll I find that it is short enough to hang in the garment bag, it is easier to load onto a plastic patterson type reel (sometimes the last 2 or 3 inches of a 36 exposure roll would give me problems loading), and the 30 shot roll will fit into one page of my negative sleeve holders.

Wayne

P.S. After I added a soft release to my Canon P's I get a blank frame everytime I put the camera back into the camera bag. I was also going to remember to not advance the film after my last shot so I would not lose a frame when the release went off in the camera bag. 41 years of advancing the shutter after a shot has formed a habit in me that I can not break. Now I just accept the blank frames as a cost of doing business with a soft release.