That's it! I'm designing and building my own film processor.

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tonyjuliano

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I recently almost lost the use of my JOBO CPE2 film processor.

Luckily, I managed to revive it, but it's not getting any younger.

The fear of living without it has made me resolve to come up with an alternative.

I have the knowledge (I'm a mechanical engineer with a background in manufacturing), the resources (I still have access to high-end design tools, and friends with electrical expertise), the motivation (I live in fear of having to go back to processing by hand), and the time (well maybe the time, we'll see).

Read all about my plan here (and if you wish to participate, pipe up!)
 
Frank Version Two said:
Why don't you just buy a professional dip and dunk machine from a real photo lab? There was about 100 years of prior art... and you could modify it for smaller batches.
Click to expand...

My needs are primarily for daylight processing of 135, 120 & 220 films, this is not really dip and dunk territory.

Besides the volume of chemistry required is prohibitive.
 
tonyjuliano said:
No "set it and forget it", I'm afraid this time out. But maybe somewhere down the line.
Click to expand...

It should be easy enough to do though. couple of tanks on top for the chemicals, each with a magnet valve, and all of them in a common temperature bath. Have a processing chamber with a tray, and stainless steel reels rotating on an axis so that the film dips into the tray. Have a drain on the tray with a magnet valve (or have the whole tray flip down for emptying it). The magnet valves allow draining the tanks into the development tray, and then out of the development tray either into the drain or into some sort of collecting tank. Full automation is then easy to do, just have a programming interface for rotating the reels and opening and closing the valves.

Put the whole thing into a light-tight box, possibly with openings on the side with a light-tight sleeve for reaching in with your arms such as on the film loading boxes you see in large labs.

I used to have a Mafina processor that worked just like that, with six baths and an optional light bulb in the chamber (for cross-processing). Someone had added a PC interface later on, so that the whole thing was fully programmable from a laptop.
 
rxmd said:
It should be easy enough to do though. couple of tanks on top for the chemicals, each with a magnet valve, and all of them in a common temperature bath. Have a processing chamber with a tray, and stainless steel reels rotating on an axis so that the film dips into the tray. Have a drain on the tray with a magnet valve (or have the whole tray flip down for emptying it). The magnet valves allow draining the tanks into the development tray, and then out of the development tray either into the drain or into some sort of collecting tank. Full automation is then easy to do, just have a programming interface for rotating the reels and opening and closing the valves.

Put the whole thing into a light-tight box, possibly with openings on the side with a light-tight sleeve for reaching in with your arms such as on the film loading boxes you see in large labs.

I used to have a Mafina processor that worked just like that, with six baths and an optional light bulb in the chamber (for cross-processing). Someone had added a PC interface later on, so that the whole thing was fully programmable from a laptop.
Click to expand...

Not feasible to do all this and still maintain a decent price point. Like I said, maybe somewhere down the line.
 
lilmsmaggie said:
Awesome! I've just about given up trying to find a Jobo Expert 3006, never-mind trying to find a motorized agitator base :bang:

If I can solve those two problems I just might be able to some my own 4 x5 processing 🙂
Click to expand...

The Jobo base is difficult to find, but there was a motor base made by Ilford (for Cibachrome home processing) that is a lot easier to find and that works just as well with the Jobo drums. I got two off eBay for under 10 EUR each.
 
drewbarb said:
If all you need is daylight processing of roll film, why not just do it by hand?
Click to expand...

While the person working on this interested in roll film, I have to wonder if he wouldn't find this more popular with those of us doing sheet film.

I've started doing my own sheet film development using a 3 reel Paterson film developing tank using screen tubes that I made. I can do 4 sheets at a time. I'd like a solution that works as well for daylight processing (or better), and doesn't require bending the sheet film so much. Preferably such a solution would require less chemicals.
 
Have you looked into Kickstarter? A number of interesting photo/processing projects have taken off there.
 
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