Film drying cabinet - has anyone tried making one?

[YorkshireBloke]

Hi,

Thanks to contributors on my previous post I have settled on dev,stop,fix etc - Cheers all!

Now I am poised to develop my stuff (a couple of rolls of 35 mm FP4 first off) I am thinking of dust

Dust and drying marks used to plague my processing back in the day - I never got around to buying a film drying cabinet to manage the dust - drying marks I had to use a squeegee and wetting agent.

This time I can afford to buy (if anyone has a spare, drop me a PM please) or there's always eBay.

MrCAD has been recommended but I would soooo want to buy a lot more, and am not in London for quite a few weeks.

Has anyone built one? We got an IKEA filtered room thingy - it might form the basis of an unheated but filtered ".airflow generator"

For the box and door I have some corrugated plastic shower/bathroom wall panel material left over from a pals bathroom job. It is smooth and wipeable (and free!).

The hinge I would think of using something like wide seatbelt webbing or plastic, glued and riveted to make a reasonable airtight seal.

Thoughts/comments appreciated!

Robert

 

[HowLarge]

When I started reading your post about a diy approach I was looking at one of my Ikea air purifiers - the small one Uppatvind
thinking that would make a perfect source of clean blown air for such a dryer and a great thing to have in any darkroom.
They are excellent value - cheap replaceable filters and are really effective use little electricity and just work.
The top exit for the airflow means that it would lend itself to a diy dryer.

 

[YorkshireBloke]

When I started reading your post about a diy approach I was looking at one of my Ikea air purifiers - the small one Uppatvind
thinking that would make a perfect source of clean blown air for such a dryer and a great thing to have in any darkroom.
They are excellent value - cheap replaceable filters and are really effective use little electricity and just work.
The top exit for the airflow means that it would lend itself to a diy dryer.

Thanks for mentioning the name for the IKEA thingy! That's what I have - good to have some reassurance that someone else thinks idea is a goer.

Robert

 

[Ian Grant]

In the late 1970s I made a heated drying cabinet from an old clothes locker, it worked well. I'd be processing large batches of film 20+ 35mm & 120, and needed speed.

However, I haven't used a film drying cabinet in years, I just hang them in the darkroom to dry, or when living abroad in the living room, that's many thousands of films, never had a dust issue.

Dust is more an issue after processing, picked up when enlarging or scanning, I prefer glassless negative carriers, or just glass below the negative.

With LF dust is more of an issue in film/plate holders, clean holders well before loading, keep in sealed plastic bags until use.

35mm or 120 never use a squeegee, with 35mm if you have hard water drying marks can be an issue. For decades, I've just run the film back over kitchen paper towelling, no drying marks.

Ian

 

[YorkshireBloke]

In the late 1970s I made a heated drying cabinet from an old clothes locker, it worked well. I'd be processing large batches of film 20+ 35mm & 120, and needed speed.

However, I haven't used a film drying cabinet in years, I just hang them in the darkroom to dry, or when living abroad in the living room, that's many thousands of films, never had a dust issue.

Dust is more an issue after processing, picked up when enlarging or scanning, I prefer glassless negative carriers, or just glass below the negative.

With LF dust is more of an issue in film/plate holders, clean holders well before loading, keep in sealed plastic bags until use.

35mm or 120 never use a squeegee, with 35mm if you have hard water drying marks can be an issue. For decades, I've just run the film back over kitchen paper towelling, no drying marks.

Ian

Thanks Ian, much appreciated.