You have been so helpful in the past, perhaps you can offer me some guidance on this topic.

Where might I find additional information on drum processing times. I have read the FAQ #9 and it offers some insight to my questions, but I would like to learn more.

When I took the advice you offered in the past, and began to seek out garage sales and classified ads for used equipment I hit on several really great deals. (Got all of the necessary basic darkroom equipment for under $100.00!) There was a lot of stuff like new, some still in boxes. With this stuff I aquired a unicolor drum roller base (no Drum),like new, in a box. I do not do color, but was wondering if I could use this with a film developing tank for constant agitation developing of my black and white negatives (the motor works great and the base wheels have no wear), and if so would one of the jobo drums be the best to use? And are there any tables published that anyone knows about to help with the developing times using this method.

At this point, I have been using Arista D400 film, and the results have been very good, using Arista of Kodak Chemistry.

Thanks Jeff Riehl

P.S. - Again, I would like to take the opprotunity to thank those in this newsgroup who have offered their advice and guidance and experiences. No only have you saved me money on the inital setup of my darkroom, but have made my re-entry into black and white photography and film development fantastic!! Keep up the great advice.

-- Jeff (pctech@tir.com), April 04, 2000

Answers

I cannot tell you which Jobo drum to use because I don't know what format you are using. Expert drums work on the Unicolor base. They take sheet film, sizes 4x5-8x10. I don't think the smaller drums for roll films will work on the base, but I am not 100% sure.

-- William Marderness (wmarderness@hotmail.com), April 04, 2000.

the Expert drums have a water jacket, integral channels that are meant to be submersed in water for temperature control. if you can't get your motorized base wet (I know nothing of the Unicolor base), I would look at the lower-end JOBO tanks that will work just fine.

or so I am told. I use the JOBO 3010 Expert Drum and roller base, hand rotating in a water bath. not much fun if the developing times exceed ten minutes, but since I usually play a Beethoven Sonata for the duration .. I don't seem to mind.

-- daniel taylor (aviator@agalis.net), April 04, 2000.

Odss are the 1500 series tanks from Jobo will be too small to fit onto a Uniroller or Beseler motor base. The 2500 tanks should except in the really large sizes where the locking ring in the middle will interfere with the rotation. If you're using sheet film, you'll probably be able to use the print drum. Load the sheets of film like they were paper. DJ

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), April 04, 2000.

I never give out e-dresses for equipment unless I pretty sure it will benefit people. I know that gdwnphoto@aol.com has Unicolor drums in stock as well as Beselar drums which work fine on Unicolor bases. I use my Unicolor drum for 4x5 and 8x10 film processing. Hope this helps. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), April 06, 2000.

One of the greatest inventions in photo processing was the Unicolor reversing agitator and corresponding drums in the standard sizes. They all will process sheet film in sizes up to l6x20, Unicolor also made a small rubber separator that fit on the largest groove to separate the negatives when processing multiples. If you can find some of these separators you have it made. To process roll film, a 3,5or 8 reel Paterson tank work just fine. When developing films using a rotary process , you should reduce the developing time by approx 10 to 20 percent. Ihope this information is of some assistance. Warm regards

Ed McCarthy

-- Ed McCarthy (edmccarthy1@prodigy.net), May 29, 2000.