Re: [Largeformat] Daylight tank

[Les Newcomer <lnphoto@ismi.net>]

there are other brands of effectively the same thing.  They others are
the Combi tank, imported by HP marketing  and the Yankee tank. The HP
tank is small (6 sheets of film) and will allow inversion agitation but
fills/drains slowly so most people fill the tank and drop the basket of
film in at one time, rather than pouring a small amount over the film
through its hole.  The other brand is Yankee,  it too has a removable
basket, and on early ones the top was clear so you could re-expose E-4
transparencies! The one advantage the FR tank had over the yankee is the
FR tank can process glass plates.  ( I didn't say it was a BIG
advantage, just an advantage!)

Les



don.wilkes@gems9.gov.bc.ca wrote:

> --- In Largeformat@egroups.com, Les Newcomer <lnphoto@i...> wrote:
> > The biggest trick with an FR tank is that A. It's made of bakelite
> and
> > is as brittle as china.  Coax, BUT NEVER PRY,
>
> Yeah, I suspected it was good old Bakelite -- strong, but fragile!
>
> > Two make sure you have at least two pieces to the lid,
>
> Yup, got both.
>
>
> > to make sure the light traps aren't chipped.
>
> Everything looks fine, but of course I won't know for sure until I
> process some test negs.  On the whole, it looks like it's never been
> abused, although it's obviously been sitting empty on a shelf for
> quite a while -- there's evidence of ancient spider residence :}
>
> > (I bought it on ebay and in shipping  someithing blew a hole in the
> > bottom, top is good tho)
>
> What a shame!  These things must be kind of rare; I asked all over
> town about some sort of daylight sheet tank, and only this one guy
> knew about FR (I certainly didn't).  So, I plan on taking really good
> care of it!  The only downside to it, compared to using the Unicolor
> drum, will be the comparitively large amount of solution I'll have to
> use if just souping a couple of sheets.  So, I guess I'll just have
> to
> hold off developing until I have enough to make it worthwhile.  Of
> course, I could always shoot lots more film, too <g>.
>
> Thanks for all the advice, guys.
> \Don
>