20 Mule Team T-MAX (D-76) booster?

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I've been playing with D-76 type formula, and the basic idea is already in the subject line.

Did anyone try TMX in D-76 1+4 with about 1.5g/l 20 Mule Team added?

Saturated borax solution at 20C contains about 70g borax per liter. So, 20ml of saturated solution per liter of diluted developer is probably in the good range. (for those who don't have a balance.)

I have only done it with ascorbate version, and guessing this idea can be useful if it works well with plain old D-76 or packaged D-76. I don't have hydroquinone so I can't test it :-) Development time is something comparable to that of D-76 1+1 but test with quater roll strips.

Rodinal has way too many "additive" junkies, but D-76 users don't seem to have any...

-- Ryuji Suzuki (rsuzuki@rs.cncdsl.com), February 01, 2002

Answers

One more random idea.

D-76R has 1.5x developping agents and 10x borax than D-76. So, if you have an access to D-76R, you might want to try D-76R 1+7 or similar dilutions for TMX. It looks like the smallest package is one gallon, so it's unlikely that I buy and try myself... but I thought some of you have an easy access to it at work/school/etc so just an idea.

-- Ryuji Suzuki (rsuzuki@rs.cncdsl.com), February 02, 2002.


I've never tried adding more borax to D-76; about the closest was that I've tried giving film a few minutes in a 2% borax solution after normal development to see if that boosted shadow density any. It didn't.

-- John Hicks (jhicks31@bellsouth.net), February 04, 2002.

The point of this experiment is different ---

TMX seems to perform well in dilute developing agents and sulfite, yet rather base-rich solution. I like TMX in D-76H 1+3 except it takes long time to process, and I don't get full sharpness and highlight brilliance (you might disagree on this one). In this case, extra borax helps, especially if I proceed to dilute a bit further. THis is the point here.

So I don't think additional borax at full strength or 1+1 dilution helpful, but at 1+3 or 1+4 dilution it probably helps a bit, and at least save processing time. Indeed, original D-76 tend to produce a bit more fog with some films compared to many other developers, and it's probably unwise to increase borax for full strength use without otherwise good reasons.

At one point my TMX developer switched to carbonate/bicarbonate combination but increased borax and dilution worked as well.

Just an idea for dedicated D-76 users who try to get more out of TMX (and a yellow bag of chemical).

Darkroom experimenters: I am getting a feeling that ascorbate based developers tend not to require restrainer or antifoggant to produce comparable fog level. Is this just me or consistent with your experience??

-- Ryuji Suzuki (rsuzuki@rs.cncdsl.com), February 04, 2002.


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