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  #1  
Old 30th January 2020, 11:53 AM
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GoodOldNorm GoodOldNorm is offline
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Unhappy Phenidone off ebay no good or weak.

Mixed some ID78 last night. Used phenidone bought on ebay from chempl(964) 100g in Sept. 2019 .The developer would only produce a cloudy faint grey image on my paper. I added 0.5g of my old phenidone that I had on stock. The developer then worked as it should. Conclusion the phenidone from Poland is no good or very weak. I shall try another batch of ID 78 in the near future gradually adding the Polish phenidone until I get a print developer that works. I can not be bothered with the hassle of returning the phenidone. I shall try increasing the amount of phenidone in order to make the print developer work, if it does not work as it should I will bin the phenidone, lesson learned, buy cheap, buy twice.
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Old 30th January 2020, 12:38 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Sorry to hear of the problem, Norm. It might be worth a note to the seller. If he is an honest seller then to save his business and reputation he may welcome being told of the bad batch.

I am beginning to wonder if the likes of e-bay is ever worthwhile except where the difference in price between recognised stockists such as those retailers and businesses in the U.K. and the e-bay seller is just ridiculous

Mike
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Old 30th January 2020, 12:42 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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You've made an interesting point Norm.

Like you, I buy (most of) my chemicals from sellers on ebay in Poland. So far though, I've never had any problems with any of the chemicals ordered. The only thing that went bad on me, was a bottle of Rodinal, which I've posted about previously.

Terry S
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Old 30th January 2020, 12:44 PM
mpirie mpirie is offline
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Thanks for the heads up Norm.

I bought 250g in October from the same supplier for my home-made Pyrocat but haven't tried it yet.

I guess there's no way to test other than to make up a full developer?

Will watch with interest.

Mike
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Old 30th January 2020, 04:16 PM
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Just made another 1ltr of print developer. This time I used 1g of polish phenidone instead of 0.5g. The developer works just fine. Next time I will try 0.75g . The polish phenidone is definitely not as strong as the stuff I bought from Silverprint many moons ago. I see Silverprint do not list phenidone anymore but Wet Plate Supplies sell phenidone 25g £11.99.
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Old 30th January 2020, 07:02 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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So at double the strength it works OK but you'll go through it twice as fast so it has to be half Wet Plate Supplies price to just break even. There is always a catch

Reminds me of an amusing tale concerning myself. Many years ago when I lived in Liverpool I got what looked like a great shirt in a box from a street vendor. I was even able to feel the material and check the collar etc and everything seemed perfect

However on trying it on I realised that while the top half of the shirt
was Jermyn Street the bottom half barely reached my belly button .

A shirt with about half the material needed

Mike
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Old 2nd February 2020, 07:09 PM
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Thanks for the warning! Definitely something to look out for... I usually get my stuff from Suvatlar in Germany, might be a tad more expensive but he's "in the trade" and I've never had any issues....
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Old 3rd February 2020, 12:01 AM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is online now
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I have Ilford Phenidone made in 1961 and it's as good as fresh Phnidone.

The Photographers Formulary in the US had some bad Phenidone they supplied it as a raw chemical and in developer kits, Sounds rather similar.

British books say Phenidone has a long shelf life, US books a short shelf life. The British books are correct in my limited 40+ years practical experience with never an issue.

Ian
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Old 3rd February 2020, 08:11 AM
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Checked my old phenidone it works fine,I stated earlier that I purchased it from Silverprint, not so. On the plastic tub the there is a RAYCO lable. The Rayco chemical supply company closed down long ago, anyone remember when?
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Old 3rd February 2020, 09:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodOldNorm View Post
Checked my old phenidone it works fine,I stated earlier that I purchased it from Silverprint, not so. On the plastic tub the there is a RAYCO lable. The Rayco chemical supply company closed down long ago, anyone remember when?
I think around 2004/5, I wanted to buy the company and approached Steve the guy who essentially ran it but it had been sold the day before. Essentially it was just part of s chemists shop who had taken over the chemistry side from the original owner Ray ? who's also made timers, analysers etc I think in Aldershot, the company was Rayco Instruments Limited

Steve said the shop's owners had run stocks down and need the space to expand the pharmacy side. A company in Birmingham bought it but never carried on trading. Essentially all that was left was a small dwindling stock of chemicals and a mailing list, the shop owners hadn't let Steve buy new stock.

I have a Rayco enlarger timer which I keep as a spare.

Ian
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