Is there a Squeegee that works??

[drewbarb]

Pretty much all squeegees work just fine as they were designed- for use on PAPER PRINTS- NOT on film.

Where did this dumb idea come from, that film should be wiped off at the end of the wash cycle? What a great way to scratch it. After the final rinse, dunk your film in clean, fresh wetting agent (photo-flo, or a small drop of dish washing liquid in a liter of water, etc) and hang it up to dry- that's it. Don't wipe it or otherwise touch it with anything. As others have said (above, and many times before- here and elsewhere on the net) wiping off excess water from film with anything is just a sure-fire way to damage it. Don't do it.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Pretty much all squeegees work just fine as they were designed- for use on PAPER PRINTS- NOT on film.

I would have to agree with Drewbarb about never using a squeegee designed for a paper print on film. But I would have to add that using a film squeegee on a print will not work either unless you want to squeegee only the outside 3" of the print while holding it up in the air.

But as I said before, I am not crusading for anyone using or not using a squeegee. That is unless you are trying to use a print squeegee on film. I would strongly advise against that.

 

[Robert Lai]

Even photo-flo in hard water will leave spots. The answer for me was distilled water (or reverse osmosis water), in which I mixed my photo-flo solution, and also used for the final rinse. Then hang it up and never touch it until dry.

I empty my dehumidifier every day in this humid weather. It has a nasty collection of fungus and bacteria, judging by the ugly brown slime in there. Please don't use this stuff! Just buy some distilled water instead.

 

[Freakscene]

No squeegee for me. When i printed for other people, squeegee'd negatives that were 'scratch free' according to the owners often had fine scratches when examined at high magnification, that showed if printed large with collimated light (a look a lot of people like). No squeegee for my negs. Having said that, Adelaide tapwater is equally deadly to negs and I use Milli-Q water exclusively.

Marty

 

[pakeha]

regarding the water - I'm thinking of using the collected water from a de-humidifier (filtered through new coffee filters) as the base water for all my chemicals, and phot-flow.
sorry - not meaning to hijack.
but still - no squeegee.

hijack or not, seems like a good idea, all this time i have been pouring into sink and worried about the high levels of lime in our tap water...thanx
Also, after using a squeegee once....never again
regards
CW

 

[Requin]

N e v e r use a squegee after washing the film. After washing and bathing in PhotoFlo solution (you can use a few drops of dishwasher in the last bath). I put my film on reels into a (salad) centrifuge and let the film rotate. Film is nearly dry after that and is hung up to dry completely. My 2 cents.

 

[rodt16s]

Living in a hard water area I have been plauged with drying marks, Squeegee helped but gave scratches. I now use the cheap purified bottled water from the supermarket and 1:300 photo-flo (1:200 gave scanning artifacts @100% crop). What has made all the difference is I spin dry the cassette, absolutely no drops left on the exposed area.

 

[Vincent.G]

Use a dust blower

Use a dust blower

The tap water in Singapore is very clean - so clean one can drink off the tap. After my last rinse in tap water, I shake the reels hard to drain off as much water as possible.

After hanging up the negatives, I usually will still get some small droplets on the surface. Then I use a manual lens dust blower to gently blow the water droplets to the edge of the negatives and let it dry naturally. No squeegee for me. No contact with the negatives. Only AIR. My hands and fingers are rough.

 

[Peter S]

I struggled with same problem. Last bath with photoflo in demineralized water and then a quick spin of the reel with film in a salad spinner did the trick for me. Spotless negs ever since.

 

[Roger Hicks]

From http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how process 35-120.html, based on 40+ years' experience:

To squeegee or not to squeegee?

Some people use double-bladed squeegees to remove water from the film before hanging it up to dry; some run the film between two fingers; some use a wrung-out chamois; some never touch the film. Some spin the films in salad spinners (still in the reels) to drain then further.

Many in each camp are vocal that theirs is the only way. Over the last 40+ years we have tried all of them, and are firmly of the opinion that it doesn't matter very much. The miniscule risks of scratching with squeegees, fingers and chamois are countered by the way that the film dries faster and picks up less dust. Do whatever you think best. Do not believe anyone who tells you that their way is the only way.

Cheers,

R.

 

[btgc]

Wash aids and squeeging is cheating, you know - just like light meters 🙂

OK, I'm developing my own B/W only for a year. I've tried to leave it dry naturally, squeeqee with fingers, use distilled water but every time I got drying marks.

In local lab I were advised to use chamois leather. I cat a strip which I put in water well before I start to mix chemicals - leather has to be completely soft. After last rinse (tap water for everything) I hang film and put leather strip around film strip, then angle it a bit to make some tension with film and slowly move from upper end to bottom. Chamois leather is very soft and absorbs water. Just be sure to rinse it after and before use to eliminate any potential particles which may scrath film (depends on how you store it...don't clean shoes with it 🙂 )

That way I get dry spotless film. I let it dry for some hour, maybe two and then roll emulsion out and take away for some 8-12 hours. You can re-roll it in between, swapping outer and inner ends to have perfectly flat both ends. After that film is flat and is ready to be cut and sleeved.

 

[MPerson]

When I did my training for Intel photography the first 30 mins of Day 1 consisted of the instructor showing us various film squeegees and breaking them into small pieces. When he had finished he said, "... and if I catch any of you buggers using your fingers as a squeegee, I'll break them too!" End of lesson one.

Forty years on I can still hear his voice every time I hang negs up to dry. I have never felt the need to use a squeegee....

 

[Arjay]

Interesting thread - I did a lot of experimentation in this regard:

I used a high-quality squeegee - lots of scratches in a 4000 dpi scan. I added PhotoFlo and did away with the squeegee - I traded scratches for ugly water marks.

What strikes me is that I haven't tried demineralized water together with PhotoFlo for the last rinse. This sounds promising: The tap water I have at home is very hard. So, demineralized water sounds like a very good idea.

I read of some people who claimed they improved their results by adding some alcohol to tha last rinse. Can anybody give his view on this?

 

[Edward C. Zimmermann]

From http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how process 35-120.html, based on 40+ years' experience:

To squeegee or not to squeegee?

Some people use double-bladed squeegees to remove water from the film before hanging it up to dry; some run the film between two fingers; some use a wrung-out chamois; some never touch the film. Some spin the films in salad spinners (still in the reels) to drain then further.

Many in each camp are vocal that theirs is the only way. Over the last 40+ years we have tried all of them, and are firmly of the opinion that it doesn't matter very much. The miniscule risks of scratching with squeegees, fingers and chamois are countered by the way that the film dries faster and picks up less dust. Do whatever you think best. Do not believe anyone who tells you that their way is the only way.

Cheers,

R.

I completely agree. To the list add also kitchen paper towels--- but make sure first they are without abrasives (Ron Mowrey has suggested many North-American papers contain silica particles). Paper has the advantage in that its use once and "throw away" whence less prone to contamination failures. Many in the salad spinner camp use kitchen towels. When developing microfilms there is a lot of sludge and the towels do help.
I'd also suggest one use a drying cabinet. They need not be the big bulky lockers. I use one of those small wall mounted plastic things made by DevAppa (the Jobo Mistral II is a slightly modified version of these).

 

[Roger Hicks]

All right: where are the scratches coming from? Gravel in the water, maybe. If you think that's far-fetched tale a look at the picture of a Paterson water-filter here:

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/mt paterson water filter.html

Squeegees don't cause scratches. Grit causes scratches. With a CLEAN squeegee and CLEAN water, the risk should be negligible.

By all means use whatever method suits you best but don't get hysterical about it.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Keith]

I get more problems from my wash and rinse water than I do my drying method! We only have tank water where I live and particles in it lodge on the emulsion during the washing cycle ... using filtered water for the wash and using the Ilford method stops it happening to an extent but I find that method tedious and keeping up the supply of filtered water not really practical.

I clone a lot! 😛

 

[Edward C. Zimmermann]

I read of some people who claimed they improved their results by adding some alcohol to tha last rinse. Can anybody give his view on this?

Yes. Isopropanol itself is a good "wetting agent". I use a good slug of high quality Isopropanol (DAB grade 9) together with de-mineralized water and more dilute photo wetting agent (Agepon 1+500 instead of 1+200).

 

[alfredian]

Distilled/DI water only

Distilled/DI water only

After years of doing the PhotoFlo + squeegee-or-fingers thing I now do distilled water only. Shake excess drops from the reeled film, then swish & swirl in a plastic container w/distilled water, then hang. No mineral spots, no scratches & I keep the (store-bought) DW in the plastic (formerly yogurt) container until next time. Get 4-6 uses per container, thus 40-50 rolls per gallon jug. Not bad given the price per gallon at the supermart.