Pyro woes continue.....

Ian: Part A is slightly straw coloured, Part B is clear.

So the plot thickens......I shot off a single sheet. Put it in the Paterson tank (single sheet, centre column and nothing else. 13 minutes in the Pyro, 1 min in the water stop, 5 minutes in the fix and guess what.....I have a usable 5x4 neg !!

So all fingers are pointing at contamination while in the Jobo. All I can think of is when pouring in the dev, it's picking up something from a previous session while in the delivery tube which is negating the action of the dev, despite regular washes and rinses.

You may be right Robert. Next effort will be to use the rotary, but avoid using the delivery tube and manually fill/empty the tank!

Mike
 
Wow! Result!

In the old days this would be labelled "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings" : those who know nowt are untroubled by existing expertise! :p:confused:

Chemical diagnosis will NOT be part of my regular contribution to the forum...

Robert
 
As I think more about it, I'm wondering if the new (alkali) dev is picking up some (acid) fix from another session, thus neutralising the developer.

I might need to look out some alkali fixer.

Mike
 
Hi Mike,

A couple of other thoughts...

Pyro-based developers can be affected by the water used to mix the working solution; I always use distilled water. Also, and I would say Ian G has already postulated this, but I suspect your B solution has gone bad. If you couldn't detect a difference between the 8.5 min neg and the 13 min neg, then something is terribly wrong. I would advise buying some fresh Pyrocat-HD and use distilled water to mix the working developer. I'd be surprised if a development time in the 10 - 13 min range wasn't correct.

Also, if you're new to pyro developed negs, do you know that they will look thinner when compared to, say, an HC-110 neg? The stain adds printable density. If, after trying all the suggestions in this thread you still don't feel it's right, please post a picture of your neg; I would like to see what you're getting.

Good luck!
 
Hi Alan, as I mentioned in my last post, i managed to get a result from using a Paterson tank, so all fingers are pointing at some sort of contamination from the fill/drain tube on my CPA2 lift when using the Jobo.

With regards to the suggestion of the dev concentrate being exhausted or there being an issue with the water, these variables would have had the same effect on the 120's in the Paterson tanks.....but they didn't.

Mike
 
Alan, it would be highly unusual for Part B to go bad, while it won't last forever it has a very long shelf life compared to Part A.

Ian
 
Just realised i hadn't mentioned my source for the Pyro-HD.

I bought it from a seller in the UK on eBay who uses it for his own photographic work just a couple weeks ago.

It's mixed with Glycol and i don't think exhaustion is the problem (unless you consider the exhaustion being caused by the contamination).

Thanks again to all.

Mike
 
mpirie said:
Hi Alan, as I mentioned in my last post, i managed to get a result from using a Paterson tank, so all fingers are pointing at some sort of contamination from the fill/drain tube on my CPA2 lift when using the Jobo.
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't see that post. Not that this really matters, but I've been running my CPP2 w/lift for all manner of B&W development processes for 20+ years and I've never cleaned anything; other than to wipe down drips of water when they land on the control panel.
 
Ian Grant said:
Alan, it would be highly unusual for Part B to go bad, while it won't last forever it has a very long shelf life compared to Part A.

Ian
Click to expand...

Ian, I mentioned it only because I've had Part B die on me much before I thought it should. Since I concoct developers from scratch, I mix everything with distilled water. Over all the many years I've used PCat-HD, I've only ever had Part B die on me once; I just figured it must have been something I did to contaminate the solution.
 
Alan, do you see some fluid leak from the end of the drain pipe on the lift when you're pouring the chems into the lift?

If you've no problems with contamination, are you using an alkali fixer?

Mike
 
mpirie said:
Alan, do you see some fluid leak from the end of the drain pipe on the lift when you're pouring the chems into the lift?

If you've no problems with contamination, are you using an alkali fixer?

Mike
Click to expand...

If you pour too fast, you will see some drips exiting the drain pipe. I use standard fixer, rapid fixer, and alkaline-based fixer such as TF-5.
 
Interesting.....I'll need to try pouring slower then....and try an alkali fixer.
 
mpirie said:
Interesting.....I'll need to try pouring slower then....and try an alkali fixer.
Click to expand...

Good luck! I'd be surprised if switching to an alkali fixer fixes (sorry for the pun!) anything, but I hope it works out for you.
 
Success at last!

I processed 4 sheets at 13 min in the Jobo. However, I didn't use the filling funnel of the lift.......I manually filled and drained the tank for each step, but used the Jobo for the rotary agitation.

As before, I doubled up on my key shots and as the 13 min sheets looked lacking in density in the shadows and had a bit of uneven development, so I processed the second and third sets of four sheets at 16 mins......much better!

I also upped the pre-wash from my usual 2 mins to 5 mins as per Sandy King's suggestion.......again, a big improvement.

Thanks to all for your help and suggestions.

Mike
 
Great news Mike! Sure sounds like something is amiss with the funnel part of your lift.
 
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