Cleaning a Nova tank.

[winchman]

Originally Posted by SanMiguel

brushes are also useful for scrubbing the film reels after use. I don't know what I'm going to do in the future since my wife bought me an electric toothbrush for Christmas.


Michael

Home and Bargain and Asda do 4 for £1 I often use them as we have gone all electric

[John King]

Originally Posted by winchman

Thanks John
Thats what I thought about a safe light, from memory I can only use a Multigrade brown one?
Colour is total darkness?

By a quirke of the emulsion sensitivity, colour paper emulsion is almost insensitive to yellow/orange sodium lights (Like some street lighting) so you can have it on all the time but at a low level. The light output is variable via simple sliding blind. I have mine set to about 15% The lamp is directed onto the white ceiling and diffused. The light is adequate to see quite well, once your eyes have become acustomed. The workbench with my Nova is about 6-8 feet from the light and I have yet to experience fogging due to the safelight.

If you use B&W then you can crank it up to full power in complete safety - it will not fog under normal circumstances

To be honest, I could not work without one.

You will I think be using FUJI paper which I do not personally like. Fuji paper is slightly more sensitive to exposure than the Kodak so my distances may not be correct .
The Kodak I use is only available in bulk rolls, so have made a light tight dispenser to enable me to use bulk rolls of 12" wide by 80 Meters of Kodak paper. That length gives me the equivalent of 195 sheets of 12x16 paper and that makes it about 25% the cost of boxed Fuji equivalent.

[John King]

Originally Posted by Martin Rick

Btw, the Nova heating element looks suspiciously like an aquarium thermostat/heater. It's 150W. Check it out at your local pet shop.

You may find that they are a bespoke item and unique to NOVA so getting a water-tight seal around the apperture at the base of the processor

[SanMiguel]

Originally Posted by winchman

Home and Bargain and Asda do 4 for £1 I often use them as we have gone all electric

Thanks winchman - can't really complain about that deal. I guess that will be route I'll have to take in future.
Michael

[billcowan]

Denture cleaning tablets left to soak in a water full slot work as well.

[Mike O'Pray]

Originally Posted by billcowan

Denture cleaning tablets left to soak in a water full slot work as well.

A good idea. I don't like wasting anything so thought about throwing my dentures into the Nova Slots as well but the wife vetoed that. She said that she didn't mind me losing my George Clooney looks for say the usual 10 mins denture soak but drew the line at 3 days

Mike

[Stocky]

I used to use Steradent denture cleaner until I read that its active ingredient is sulfamic acid which is used in a number of products used to descale appliances, clean ceramic tiles of scale etc. It might be available in big hardware stores.

(My cleaning is only for standard black and white chemistry: for colour chemicals I would guess that a different approach would be necessary).

[Bob]

You could try Coca Cola. That has enough acid in it to clean most things I am told...

I have just used diluted household bleach in the past. I'm going to give mine a clean soon now I have (most of) my darkroom back in commission :-)

Cheers, Bob.

[Brock]

For a healthy cleaner you could try citrus infused vinegar. Get a jar, peel an orange or lemon into it (just the peel), fill with white vinegar and give it a good shake. Leave for a fortnight, give another shake and strain the contents. Transfer it to a spray bottle and scoot away. Magic stuff that won't kill your lungs or give you some weird lurgy.


www.theonlinedarkroom.com

[John King]

Originally Posted by Bob

You could try Coca Cola. That has enough acid in it to clean most things I am told...
Cheers, Bob.

That snippet is actually a myth. It was said a long time ago that if you placed a copper coin on a cup of Coca-cola for a couple of days it would remove the tarnish - wrong - it doesn't. All it does is waste a drink of Coca-cola.

I do believe it does contain a miniscule quantity of phosphoric acid which in a more concentrated quantity may j-u-s-t do something...... Like give you the trots, but it won't clean a NOVA Tank!