Trouble loading Paterson Universal 3 Reel

I just finished 150 feet of Ilford P4 Surveillance film, same film as the OP used. Before that I finished about 200 feet of Polypan F, thin film, too. Sometimes I developed films in consecutive days when I had a large batch, and the tank and reels were still wet. Not a single problem. I always used stainless steel reels.

Ppl always claimed that stainless steel reels is difficult in the beginning. For me, the first 5 - 10 rolls were the most difficult. But I ended up with only two three rolls being ruined. After that everything was smooth. Given the troubles from time to time that people ran into with plastic reels, I would say it is worth to consider moving to steel reels.

And yes hewes reels are really easy to use. One of my four 35mm steel reels is hewes. It is cleverly designed to avoid common troubles with steel reels.
 
From your second photo, it seems that there is no center clip to fix the film lead. Can you please show some pictures from a different angle about the center of the reel?


Fraser said:
Sorry to hijack but it may help the OP and others, I just had a look at my metal reels and had a go and even in daylight I have trouble loading them, I've loaded thousands of films on the plastic reels used them when I was a staff photographer but I do like the idea and the compact size of the metal ones, so I wonder if these are Nikor reels and thats why I'm having trouble, my tanks are as they have Nikor on the bottom.
What do you think?


Cheers.
Click to expand...
 
No there is no clip but that is the same as the little instruction sheet that came in the box with the tanks and spirals, here another view.
Cheers.
 
That's a bit odd because there is no way to fix the film lead to the center of the reel based on your pictures. Hewes reels do not have a center clip but they have two little nob at the edge of the center for film to hook on. Thus film does not bent (center clip tend to cause that) and is perfectly aligned to the reel.


Fraser said:
No there is no clip but that is the same as the little instruction sheet that came in the box with the tanks and spirals, here another view.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
 
newtorf said:
That's a bit odd because there is no way to fix the film lead to the center of the reel based on your pictures. Hewes reels do not have a center clip but they have two little nob at the edge of the center for film to hook on. Thus film does not bent (center clip tend to cause that) and is perfectly aligned to the reel.
Click to expand...

The end of the film is pushed into the gap and locks in as it starts to turn.
 
newtorf said:
That's a bit odd because there is no way to fix the film lead to the center of the reel based on your pictures. Hewes reels do not have a center clip but they have two little nob at the edge of the center for film to hook on. Thus film does not bent (center clip tend to cause that) and is perfectly aligned to the reel.
Click to expand...

You just put the start of the film in the U. There is enough friction to hold the film in place.

I have both helves and these generic type of reel. No difference in difficulty of loading film, but the helves has 1 extra 'round' so a longer film can be loaded.
 
I have the System 4 with two plastic reels (w/ 35mm) and have trouble even though I've been doing this for years. Tried taking the ball bearings out...no help, and the film will slide back out if you aren't careful in the beginning. I finally bought some "like new" reels and that fixed things for a while. I make sure I clean the reels real well w/ a toothbrush right after I take the film out. Photo Flo can build up and cause issues if you don't. I'm not sure what the answer is. The times I've had problems the film felt like it loaded perfectly on the reels. Now I develop only one roll at a time because I tend to be extra careful when I do that. Didn't have this problem w/ 120 film. If it continues I may try developing in a tray in the darkroom and rocking the film. No reel means no mis-loaded reels. I have had problems even when I started the 35mm leader (cut and rounded) outside the change bag. It's very important not to squeeze the two halves of the reels together when loading the film, which is not as easy as it sounds. I always make a conscious effort to put a little pressure and pull a little bit on one reel to keep them from binding when I twist the reel to feed the film in.

Honestly, I suspect the problem is me, not the reels. These things tend to happen when I get hurried and think it's so easy and quick loading the reels.

You might try standing the tank up in the change bag to give you a little more room.
 
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