Response to drums and tubes

Unicolor print drums work fine. Unfortunately they're not available new any more, but there's plenty of them on the used-gear market. The 8x10 drum, which can hold four 4x5 sheets, comes with a small rubber-block neg separator that keeps two sheets on the same side from sliding together; if you get a drum without the separator you'll need to devise some sort of similar gadget. The separator just slides down the center pair or ribs, which hold it in place. What's special about the Unicolor drums is that the inner surface is ribbed, which allows solution to get to the back of the film and remove antihalation and sensitizing dyes etc. A smooth-walled drum can cause mottling unless you remove the film for fixing, HCA etc, which is a royal pain and carries a very high risk of damaging the wet film. An alternative is Phil Davis' tubes, which are available from Darkroom Innovations. I've never used the tubes but I understand they work fine. The setup of choice is a Jobo and an Expert Drum, but that's comparatively big bucks. A variation I've heard of is using an Expert Drum on a Beseler roller, and using an oil-filler funnel w/hose to fill the drum while it's rotating. No idea how well that works.

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