How to use a Foldex to respool 120 to 620?

[Frank Petronio]

I read about this online and found a $10 Foldex on eBay... stuck a roll of 120 on the feed side and a 620 spool on the take side... wound through... put the "exposed" film on the 620 spool on the feed side and second empty 620 on the take side and wound through... and it jammed. Opened up and the film's emulsion side is facing me, with the white side of the paper backing behind the film.

What the heck? I've been playing with the film, rewinding it by hand, and it isn't jiving with me... what I read was that this was a simple two-step process.

Where am I messing up? Or did I buy a haunted Foldex?

 

[batterytypehah!]

Giving this a bump because I'm scratching my head.

Frank, I think I know the site you're referring to, but can't seem to find it now. I can't figure out how you ended up winding it against the curl, though.

With the caveat that I have yet to do this myself, here's what I've read.

Winding from 120 supply spool to 620 take-up spool is the easy part. Then the "exposed" spool goes into the supply chamber, flipped end-for-end.

Second winding onto second 620 spool is the tricky part, because what is now the leading end of the film is not taped to the backing. So it can jam and/or get out of register. You may have to open the camera in the dark to fix the jam.

Once you get to the end of the film strip, you open the back again and get rid of the bulge, i.e. carefully peel the tape off the backing and let it fall where wants to when you wind on. Then just continue with the last turns, winding the paper leader around the roll.

So, even with a camera that takes both spools, you're still pretty much guaranteed to have to do part of the process in the dark/changing bag. Which, I think, is why we've seen some nasty bickering between forum members in past threads on this very subject. My take: The Foldex method minimizes dust and creases on your fresh film, compared to respooling by hand in the changing bag, so it's worth it.