Squeegee or not?

[Brian Atherton]

In forty plus years of professional and amateur 35mm and 120 black and white processing, this:

I use my fingers, just a quick swipe downwards when film is hung - gets rid of the excess. I do use a drop of Ilfotol "wetting agent" in final rinse. Never felt the need to try a rubber squeegee or chamois leather.

 

[Godfrey]

1 minute in properly diluted wetting agent as the last stage of the wash, hang to dry in my shower stall: no spots, no scratches, dry and ready to scan in 30 minutes.

G

 

[wwfloyd]

Photo-Flo for thirty seconds, then hang it. Never had a problem.

Same.

Except for the never had a problem part. When I started, I used the "few drops of Photo-flo" that many people continue to recommend, and did get water spots. Now, I use an amount close to the 1:200 recommended on the Photo-flow bottle. That's over 1ml per 35mm film reel, which is more than a few drops. (Actually, about 30 drops, when checked with a Visine dropper.)

 

[Joao]

Spinning

Spinning

I often use a variant of the salad-spinner method. With a plastic CD box instead (large box for 120 film).
Detailed description here

https://public.fotki.com/BlueWind/drying-film/

I am always impressed with the amount of water extracted from the film and collected in the the tissue.

Joao

 

[Spavinaw]

Just with my fingers. By the way, why doesn't finger rhyme with ginger?

 

[Russell W. Barnes]

Final rinse in the Paterson System 4 tank for 35mm and 120 film: 600ml boiled water (or tap water - it's good around here), to which I add an APX100 35mm film-container-capful of Ilfotol, which happens to be 3ml exactly, and agitate by spinning the reel for about ten seconds then standing for about a minute.

Whilst film is in the tank, I run the shower briefly and wash my hands, then hang the film on the shower door top bar. Two fingers once down the film and that's it. Incidentally, I stopped drying the tank with either cloth or paper as I was getting residual chats off the cotton that sometimes appeared on the next film I developed! Just a wash in hot soapy water and dry naturally upside down on the window-sill.