News

DIY index tabs for your film holders. Less than a nickle each!

This topic has come up enough that it deserves promotion from a Newsletter to a permanent blog post... People have asked about using a water bath and the SP-445.  Bear in mind that the SP-445 is molded out of rather thick plastic. This is a much better insulator than a highly conductive steel tank or even the comparatively thin walls of most other plastic tanks. (Some of which are surprisingly thin.) But how much better? Here's an exciting chart that describes the thermodynamic characteristics of the SP-445: The temperature in the SP-445 will shift by less than 3 degrees over...

We've developed the first sheet of film in our SP-1810 prototype! Special thanks to Tom Finke for hauling out his 8x10 and sacrificing a sheet of film. Note that there was no artistic expression intended. We just needed a sheet of properly exposed film for testing. You can see Tom's real  work here: https://tomfinke.com/. After practicing two or three times with the lights on, Tom had no problem loading the tank in the dark. He really liked the ergonomics and the way it balances when filling/draining. The prototype does leak a bit but not as bad as we expected. (This...

We're still plugging away on the SmartLid. Here's the latest concept for the keypad and display:  You can review the updated User's guide: Version 0.2  Please post your comments below.

A lesson every engineer needs to learn: first, write the user's guide. No real engineer likes this idea but they either listen to the crusty old geezer who's been around forever, or they learn it the hard way. You can put a lot of time and energy into a really awesome design only to realize, after the prototype is built, that you need one more button. Yeah, learning things the hard way tends to be embarrassing, not to mention expensive. So, since I'm now the old geezer that's been around forever, I took my own advice and wrote the user's guide....