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  #1  
Old 26th January 2009, 10:37 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Default Balls for Bottles

I have several packs of Silverprint's Speedibrew C41 powdered Dev and Blix( best way of storing C41 chems that I know of for small vol C41 users). Each pack makes up 600ml of dev and blix but then, once made up has a limited life. The best way to extend life once mixed is to sub divide into 4x150ml bottles and use once or maybe twice with slightly extended dev on second film.

I have small brown bottles, obtained from Boots the Chemist, which almost fit the bill except that each bottle holds a little more than 150ml so I want a means of increasing the vol of liquid to the very top of the bottle to expel all air.

I had thought I had seen one supplier selling sets of small balls( presumably clear plastic) to drop into the neck of the bottles but I cannot for the life of me find any ref to such balls in any of my stockist websites. Was I imagining things? Maybe but I don't think so.

The balls would need to be less than 2cms in diameter and ideally about 1 to 1.5 cms to drop into the neck and be retrievable afterwards.

Anybody any clues as to where such balls might be available or has anyone used any such small balls that may have been meant for other purposes? Glass or plastic beads may be a possibility I suppose as long as they were unaffected by the chems.

The proverbial marble is often mentioned on sites but all the marbles I have seen are far too big for the necks of small bottles.

Interestingly enough a seller on e-bay is selling what he calls packs of " antioxidant chemicals balls" which are exactly what I need except these are egg shaped and 2cms wide by 3 cms long and must be made for big necked bottles. In fact very big when you work out the need to shake the balls out again once the bottle is emptied

So such "eggs" are a no-go size wise.

Anyone any ideas about suitable balls?

Thanks

P.S. Nothing wrong with talking balls as maybe our wives/husbands and partners would attest to. Well mine would anyway

Mike
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Old 26th January 2009, 10:46 PM
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Glass marbles from your local toy shop. You should be able to get small ones in large shops: Toys-R-us etc.
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Old 26th January 2009, 11:37 PM
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As Bob said small glass marbles should be avilable from toy shops. Just be careful if putting them in glass bottles, that you don't drop them in and crack the bottle
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Old 27th January 2009, 12:12 AM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Thanks all so far. I hope you are right about the small marbles but if they are small enough to fit into these just over 150ml bottles which I have then they must be for very small boys' hands.

Some 55yrs ago I was a marbles player but even then the marbles were all bigger than ones that would fit the neck of a small bottle. I still have a stock of my son's marbles( he doesn't really play marbles anymore at 29 yrs of age) and they are the same big ones I remember from the mid 1950s.

Ball bearings ( a great range of sizes) would be ideal but for their weight. Even with the resistance of what is essentally water in terms of liquid density I'd be dubious about glass bottles withstanding the effect of steel balls being dropped in.

Mike
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Old 27th January 2009, 12:34 AM
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I made an edit to my post that I seem to have forgotten to Save...

I measured some marbles I have laying around (I have a few loose...) - 1.5cm.
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Old 27th January 2009, 07:51 AM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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Glass bottles are (I have always assumed) designed to hold slightly more than their rated capacity to allow for an air gap which can cater for expansion of the liquid contained.The act of mixing the powder with water will ensure that the maximum amount of oxygen is desolved in the liquid, quite the opposite of what is required! Boiling and then cooling the water before use, to remove as much desolved oxygen as possible prior to mixing may help, but I doubt it.
I assume that the 150ml of chemical is to be further diluted when required? If that is the case I would top up the bottle with distilled water, and then store at as near constant temperature as I could. Then make up the solution to the required amount when needed.
However, I think you may be worrying unnecessarily here. Since the bottle is only going to be opened once, and that’s to use it’s contents, the oxygen absorbed is going to be very limited. So to start with I would see how long the mixture lasts in the small bottles before embarking on special measures that may not improve matters.
As an aside I must add that I use butane gas to flood any storage container that contains liquid developer, and find this greatly extends it’s useful life, but that may not help with the small volumes that you are dealing with.
Let us know how you get on.
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Old 27th January 2009, 08:31 AM
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Not sure if this will help but these people make 'precision spheres' in all sorts of materials including ceramic, glass and plastic. Diameters range from 0.3 to 120 mm.

http://www.technicalglass.co.uk/pdf/...on_spheres.pdf

May be worth giving them a call.

Bill
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Old 27th January 2009, 09:38 AM
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I second Dave's use of Butane gas. A can of Tetanol's Protectan seems to go on for years.

I lost all my marbles years ago!
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Last edited by Barry; 27th January 2009 at 09:39 AM. Reason: Afterthought
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Old 27th January 2009, 09:55 AM
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Andrew Bartram Andrew Bartram is offline
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I too have been using the Tetenal product for years it comes highly recommended
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Old 27th January 2009, 12:41 PM
Niall Bell Niall Bell is offline
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Mike,
You can get clear plastic balls of varying diameters that are often used to float on water baths to prevent evaporation; to retain heat and to reduce the surface of liquids being exposed to air.

I'd try one of the laboratory suppliers- run a google serarch for "water bath evaporation balls" or similar. Only problem is those I found were 20mm diameter although I'm sure that you'll find others.

Niall
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