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New 16mm developing tank


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Hi all, this is my first post here.

Over winter break I got bored and decided to try learning some CAD to make a new lomo like spiral tank for 16mm (or in my case double 8), because the results from a Morse G3 just aren't cutting it.

Its by no means refined, but in theory it should hold 100' of 16mm film.  I was going to do a test 3D print at a local makerspace, but then the pandemic moved in and that plan kinda fell apart.  I looked online at a few places that do prototype printing, and the cheapest I found was about $110 including shipping, which is a bit much for me at the moment, but is still cheaper than a lomo on ebay!

The picture is of the bottom piece.  The film would fit into a slit in the center (you can't quite see it in the pic), then you'd put the top on, use a plain old nut and bolt to hold the two together, and then begin spinning the reel assembly clockwise to wind your film on.  I wanted to make it fit inside a 5 gallon bucket, but its a bit too wide, 30 cm in diameter to be exact, so some kind of container would need to be found.

If anyone has access to a 3D printer and wants to give this a go, I'd love to see how it turns out.  I'll put the STL files up in another post because they're too big to attach here.

Let me know what you think!

bottom.JPG

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Thanks for sharing. What exactly do you want to know? I have a 3D printer the Ender 3 which is a common one and I can tell you that it is too big for my printer, but I could print the center maybe to see how the film runs trough it. Are you supposed to start loading from the center?

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I just figured I'd put the files out there in case anyone had access to a printer and wanted to give the tank a go before I get a chance to.  The film does load from the center, just like a lomo tank.  I figured if you fold the end of the film over, then put the folded part in the top of this groove, it should thread on fine.

1.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...
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For a smaller tank that is a touch wider than a 5G bucket head over to a car parts store and find one of the round oil drain containers. Mine has a spin-on lid and a hole in the center of what is a weak funnel. This option also has a drain off to the side.

Phil Forrest

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello Neighbor!

I am in Minneapolis and have been working on similar processing designs for S8. This is great! I work at a prominent arts/design college and we have access to some STL printers as I assume FDM might be a little to rough for film but could work. I am unsure of the bed dimension of these and will check. I would love to help out with this since I am closer then some of the folks on here so shipping would be cheap!

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Just wanted to chime in and say: excellent work Sam. This is something that could be quite a game changer for those among us who process at home and/or are part of small, independent film labs. Lomo tanks are great, but very fragile and expensive because the are scarce. The bakelite tanks break easily and the spirals can't withstand heat very well (if you use homebrew drying constructions). 

If the design could be extended to tanks and different sizes, I would not only print them, I would purchase them. And I don't think it's hard to offer reasonable prices compared to 100ft Lomo tanks. 

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Excellent work - there is definitely a market for 3d - printed replacement reels compatible with Lomo tanks. STL files for the other LOMO parts are available already but these are the first STLs for reels I've yet seen.

A printer with a large bed size will be required to print these models in one piece. I have a regular size 3D printer which is too small fiorthis job, but for example the Creality CR10S5 could do it. The other option is usually to split large models into parts and print then reassemble, but I doubt this would suit the spiral. Currently I don't have the bigger Creality machine .... yet anyway.

As for the print quality then I think 0.1mm would probably be a fine enough resolution to avoid scratching the film, but I'd need to test that.

best

Phil

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi all, its been awhile!

This summer I got talking with a coworker and friend of mine about film, and the spiral designs I had made.  He had a bit more modeling experience than me, and surprised me a couple months ago with a revised version!  This is more like the real lomo tank where it can take 8mm or 16mm (its also only about 50 feet long).  I did this test print through cloudcraft and the whole thing cost about $40.  Super 8 had a problem where it would jump off the track and start to pile up after about 15-20 feet, though with standard 8mm I was able to get the whole roll on.  Also when loading standard 8 (16mm) I had to flip the top over so it wouldn't slot into the spacer, it was just a hair too short otherwise.  If anyone has any suggestions just from looking at it, or from your experience with lomo tanks, we'd both love to hear it!

 

20200918_234717-min.jpg

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Finally did my first printing of the 100' tank today.  The print quality is terrible on the printers I have to use, so this is basically unusable.  As proof of concept though, its pretty ok.  The only filament I have to work with (for free at least) is PLA which doesn't seem to play very well with the spiral shape.  The smaller reel I had printed through a service was with ABS and print quality was waaaay higher.  To do the 100' tank with that same service would be about $80 shipped.

Here's a link to the new stl files too:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Qu1SQ5FAhM5b6PxvHa8q-donjY_j9BOj?usp=sharing

20201028_224756-min.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

I made a few changes and WOW, the film threads on amazing!  There is probably one more change I need to make before I try developing with it.  I'll also probably test how PLA reacts with photo chemistry.  My biggest concern is how it will react to pH changes (PLA is polylactic acid), so stuff like the sulfuric acid in B&W bleach and the alkalinity of developer solutions.

Not sure why this one turned out so much better than the last.  I'm using an Anycubic Mega X, sliced to .2mm accuracy with I think 50% infill.  I may bump that up even further to get higher quality.

20201210_214349(1).jpg

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Looks great. It's not easy to print with a .2mm tip, but looks like that's what helped you to get that great quality. I'm going to give it a try with my Ender 3, It won't fit, but I'd be happy processing 10 or 20 feet of B&W once in a while.

 

Thanks for sharing Sam.

 

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Also you may want to check this out:

https://sixteenmillimeter.com/projects/GNAL/

I believe it will fit into existing lomo containers, so you can use it as a daylight tank, and I think some parts are compatible with lomo ones (not sure though, I've never had a lomo, and haven't tried printing any of these parts).

Looks like you'll need a bed 226+ mm square to print the 50 foot spiral, and 300+ mm square to print the 100' one.  For reference, the spiral I designed is 290mm in diameter, and it barely fits on a 300x300 printer, with a skirt.

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