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Old 28th March 2020, 03:49 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default Cleaning

I's assuming like every one else, I am searching round for those 'little' jobs that need doing but have kept putting them off. The bottle in which I store my working fixer for film development has accumulated quite a bit of black silver in the inside. What is the best way of cleaning it off. The bottle, made of thick plastic, was originally a 1 litre bottle of Amfix concentrate.

Oddly enough this does not happen with my bottles containing working paper fixer. Same type of bottles, but not the same problem

I have tried soaking it for a couple of days with bleach (which clean up my developing trays perfectly well) and even resorted to using a bottle brush. Neither work very well on the bottle

How can I dissolve the blackened silver off the insides.
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Old 28th March 2020, 04:23 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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John I look forward to the answer as well. Intuitively, as the remnants are simply concentrate as opposed to working solution such that you have in a Nova slot. you'd imagine that more concentrated bleach should do the trick

I did notice that when I cleaned my Nova fixer slots recently ( I use the double slot method of fixing and the second slot which you'd expect to have a lesser deposit of fix in it actually took longer to shift. There was a silvery-grey layer on the bottom of the slot that literally took days to loosen and even then I need a bottle brush to be pushed up and down the slot for quite a number of minutes to eventually shift it

Why tell you this? Well, it might just be that in a concentrate a much stronger bleach is needed - maybe even undiluted bleach

My chemistry knowledge is practically non existent so I know nothing of what operates like bleach but is both safe and stronger

Mike
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Old 28th March 2020, 06:31 PM
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GoodOldNorm GoodOldNorm is offline
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I use household bleach bottles to store my fix, when they go black inside they are replaced
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Old 28th March 2020, 08:56 PM
Svend Svend is offline
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John, are you using the bleach at full strength, undiluted? I did this same thing some months ago and it took a few days of soaking with full strength bleach to get the bottles clean. But it did work well. Just needs time is all.
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Old 28th March 2020, 11:17 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default Bleach

Basically no. The main reason being I an conserving my household cleaning bits and pieces because I am in voluntary isolation apart from my allowable exercise period and try not to go near any shops to replace anything unless I absolutely have to.

I may find I can try the old trick of a handful of small pebbles and a 1/4 bottle of water and shake them until my eyes pop out. As it is a plastic bottle and quite thick there should be no risk of damage.
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Old 29th March 2020, 12:10 AM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John King View Post
Basically no. The main reason being I an conserving my household cleaning bits and pieces because I am in voluntary isolation apart from my allowable exercise period and try not to go near any shops to replace anything unless I absolutely have to.

I may find I can try the old trick of a handful of small pebbles and a 1/4 bottle of water and shake them until my eyes pop out. As it is a plastic bottle and quite thick there should be no risk of damage.
Gives me an idea which you may have already thought of, John. Sand, sharp if you have it, that is just wet enough to viscous

This lock-down is bringing home to me on a daily basis problems that were just not problems before

Mike
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Old 29th March 2020, 03:38 AM
Svend Svend is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John King View Post
Basically no. The main reason being I an conserving my household cleaning bits and pieces because I am in voluntary isolation apart from my allowable exercise period and try not to go near any shops to replace anything unless I absolutely have to.

I may find I can try the old trick of a handful of small pebbles and a 1/4 bottle of water and shake them until my eyes pop out. As it is a plastic bottle and quite thick there should be no risk of damage.
John, if you want to use the minimal amount of full-strength bleach and happen to have a bunch of marbles on hand, you could fill the bottle with the marbles first and then pour in the bleach. Would probably use 1/4 the amount but still do the job.
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Old 29th March 2020, 08:48 AM
John King John King is offline
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Default Cleaning with Bleach

Making light of it, I lost my marbles years ago (according to the 'boss')

I have a lot to do today so if I can get round to it, I may do the same using a load of stainless steel nuts and bolts of varying sizes that I have in my garage. If that doesn't work then I will have finished up with the countries major source of sterile fixings!

Stay safe everyone.
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Old 29th March 2020, 12:36 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
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I may find I can try the old trick of a handful of small pebbles and a 1/4 bottle of water and shake them until my eyes pop out.
Sorry John, but this part of your full post did make me laugh for some reason.

And would you believe we nearly have a Smilie that shows you doing it!

Terry S
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Old 29th March 2020, 01:04 PM
John King John King is offline
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Ya gotta have a larf, innit!
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