segunda-feira, 23 de abril de 2012

Sea Salt Fixer Project

Hi there.

As you know Cronocrator started this project. I just informally named it ;)
Four people are now trying to prove Sea Salt CAN be used as FIXER. Check my previous post (s).

Not any salt. Not table salt. But sea salt in crystals. Those you use in barbecues and steaks, salads etc.

Sea salt has most of Earth's minerals....and.... IS TOTALLY GREEN CAFFENOL!!! HURRAY

Unfortunately there is a correct way of mixing / preparing the Salt Fixer, otherwise it's just water + salt. There's a right temperature! A right dilution, density! A right time!

I'll keep adding info to this post but I feel like I must kick his thing off for now, so that we may, perhaps, find other contributors to the "Project"

First off, you'll need a density of 1.2 or over. That means, in simple words, that the 1L solution must weigh 1.2Kg.
The way you do it is NOT adding 200g of sea salt to 1000g (1L) of water....no....no way. But follow this post and a very easy way of doing it is going to be presented!

Keep in mind that you want to dilute as much salt as possible (at least 1.2 final density). Okay then how you'll do it;

Remember the huge, tall 2L plastic container I bought in my Easter Even shopping post? Here's when we use it, finally ;)

-Add 1/2 Kg of sea salt to the container,
-Add SOME water to it. Say, 700ml for instance.
-Shake it like crazy for some time. Keep shaking, now like a normal person, for a LONG time. Let's say some 5 min. You'll make sure you diluted all the salt you could for those 700ml water. Now one free tip: I warm some water for this first step because it makes diluting the salt easier! Just be careful not to burn yourself.




See the water turns brackish and dense


-Then you add water to top until it makes 1L (32oz.). Now again,,,,do all the shaking for a looong time to make sure you diluted all possible salt for that amount of water, and temperature.

You probably got it, but I'll keep on anyway:
what?? You'll end up with LESS than 1L of water!! YES, that's right....keep reading.

Once you filter to have only the salt water you'll end up with less than a litre, but remember, it's ok since your tank holds about 450ml :)
Actually, you'll end up with 600ml of salt water.....making the perfect density.

Now next. You will want to have one of those coffee filters to pour the water solution but leave the undissolved salt crystals out!

Do this:

-Pour the solution - all of it, including the salt that was not dissolved - into a pan. Maybe the same ou used to warm the water,

-Rinse your tall container, so to wash all grains of salt and crystals left behind,
-Pour the pan contents onto the filter (with the tall container under it, please!:) and repeat until all the pan's solution has being poured into the plastic container.

-Done. You have now Sea Salt Fixer yourself!


Mind that the higher the temperature the quicker you'll fix. So for that solution, 3h is enough if you keep the tmep at about 30-40ºC. I guarantee that by heating and keeping the tank in the stove (be careful to not melt the plastic of the tank. You just want to keep it warm, not hot. A couple min. every 30min is enough to warm the stove)



After fixing, wash the fixer out and rinse the tank many times with tap water.
As a last bit, rinse it with detergent (a smidge) to guarantee a spotless neg!


Welcome to Project Sea Salt Fixer ;)

Cheers!


I will add a table of temp vs. time here and more info.

8 comentários:

  1. Hello!
    I tried it with regular cheap salt (iodized) and it worked fine, 250 ml tap water and 250 mg salt ... of course I couldn't dissolve it totally ... but I didn't care, no filtering. There was a lovely salt crust on the container (a jobo photo tank) ...
    I developed a stripe of Fomapan 100 R double super 8 film with caffenol-c and then fixed it in salt for .... 3 days!!
    The result is hanging at my window for 4 days right now and is still fixed.

    Nice to meet you!

    Dagie, Berlin, Germany

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  2. Dagie, I think you mean 250g of salt. Look, I already lived in Berlin, look by Aldi or Lidl if they have this 1 kg salt in small cristrals, marine salt. 3 days is too long! If you succeed to dissolve 150 g salt in a total of 500 ml hot total solution, that means, start with less than 500 ml water because the salt will make the rest, or put first the salt and then water until you reach 500 ml. This solution (look for the cheap and dick salt by Lidl) at 30ºC or more, will fix any film in less than 12 hours for sure. small increase in salt content dissolved brings a lot and temperature helps to dissolve more salt in water.

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    Respostas
    1. you're right of course 250 g ...

      Why is 3 days too long? Can you fix it too long? (I just wanted to be sure ...) The film at my south window is still fixed ...

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  3. Yep. Just buy the salt in crystals - those used to grill steaks and barbecue. Then do as I described in my post. It's really easy. Just follow the steps.
    I suppose common salt should work because it's normally sea salt ground down to a very small powder. And it is usually washed and sieved for imperfections. We want the whole thing sea salt has to offer us ;)

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  4. No, Dagie! There is no problem in overfixing and if you are not in rush, it is ok. Most people want it in minutes or seconds, just because of not having to wait too long. I think that if that can be done over night and next morning wash and dry it is nice. I have bought 500 g potassium bromide at internet to use as restrainer in developers like caffenol. I tried to add 20mg to 100ml salt solution and the time reduced by about 40% less. I can now, with 300g salt and 0,2g/liter solution fix in about 1 and half hour at 30ºC. I made a cookie box with a lamp inside 11W economizer and I keep the developer tank on it. The temperatures varies stay about 30ºC. I also make color photos and there you need always temperature for the developer.
    From my first film fixed with salt I puted a negative at the windows balcony and it is still like new after weeks.

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  5. Thanks for sharing ! Please, Is it one shot ?

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  6. Could I prepare and stock this solution ? It's salt, so it should not get bad .. rsrsrrs

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