Printing (3D)

My 4x5 tank takes 54 fl oz, a bit much if I only want to develop one or two negatives. You can't partially fill the tank because the negatives stand upright. So I decided to try and design a negative holder that would fit in flat at the bottom of the tank.

This is the design. The  bracing struts are hollowed out to reduce the amount of material used (which quickly gets expensive).

The carriers are stack-able and the gaps in the sides are supposed to let the chemicals flow easily into the carrier and over the negative.

The design was created in Sketchup . Using the STL export plugin I created an STL file which I uploaded to Shapeways, a 3D-printing service. I chose the cheapest material (white flexible plastic).

This is the finished tray (actually two stacked together).

The good news is that the plastic isn't affected by developer or fixer. There are however some improvements I'm going to make. There probably isn't enough flow over the negatives - the negative that was in the lower carrier was spotty in places. And the slides are a little thin.

The cost per carrier was $11.55. A much more solid version will come in at $19.04 and I have a design somewhere between the two, with similar sides but stronger bracing ($14.06).

It's not a particularly cheap solution and it will take quite a while to pay for itself in saved developer, but it was an interesting exercise in creating something useful.