Home Processing TriX as Negative

[newmanauk]

Hi,

I've just purchased a Lomo spiral tank to develop TriX Super8 at home.

I built a small contraption to help load the film to the spiral reel in the dark. It's basically a board with the spiral reel mounted flat at one end and a take up reel mounted vertically in the middle.

I've never opened an S8 cartridge before and wondered what the best method was for getting the film from the cartridge to the first take up reel.

Should I crack the case open with a hammer or pull the film out? My biggest fear is that, in the dark, the cartridge is opened and the film springs out leaving me to wind the hole spiralling mess onto the take up reel.

Thanks

Alan

[Maurizio Di Cintio]

Hello Newman.
You should devise a method to pull the film out of the cart from the aperture without scratching it.

After you do this, you must know that there is a lever in the cartridge which prevents slack (and backwind): well, you need to override it. Here is how. Search for a very small, circular, close to the surface level recession under the cart's label, it's rather under the left side of the label. That is the point to "DRILL" (with a purposely made tool) to defeat the slack prevention lever inside the cart.
Once it is defeated the films runs nicely out of the cart if pulled back.

I suggest you may want to inspect an empty open cartridge before you perform any of this stuff.
I hope this is a good starting point for you.

Good luck and let me know the results.

Maurizio

[monobath]

I've just ordered a Lomo spiral reel tank from Olexandr Kalynychenko and it should be arriving within a couple of weeks. I am currently building a film carrier to fit into one of my Jobo drums so I can process film using my CPP-2 processor, and I'll soon be ready to start testing. I suspect, however, that I'll have to go through a few design iterations to achieve even development, so I thought I've give the Lomo reel a try in the meantime.

newmanauk, I'm very interested in hearing more about the reel loading contraption that you've constructed. Could you please try to describe it in a little more detail? From looking at pictures of the Lomo reel, it appears that it could be tedious to load without some kind of assist.

For opening the cartridges, I've opted so far for the simple and expedient hammer method. If you place the cartridge on a board on the floor and whack it hard near the edge, it will crack open and you can easily pull the cartridge apart and extract the spool of film. I haven't damaged any film yet by doing this.