Rewind Rate for cleaning - Renovex II

[Dave Anderson]

I'm just now starting to clean my films for transfer. I bought some Renovex II cleaner to use. Is anyone using this cleaner? Is it adequate for the job?

My main question is that I bought a 5' long board to mount my rewinders on. At what rate can I comfortably clean film? A foot a second? I don't want to risk winding the film up while it's still wet! I've heard that the cotton pad should be as far away from the rewind reel as possible to give as much time as possible. Makes sense. I'm just trying to get a sense for how quick this stuff evaporates.

Secondly, I've heard that an old cotton t-shirt works fine. Do I want the area I'm using just 'damp', or should it be fairly saturated? How much pressure should I use? Just worried I might screw something up.


Thanks in advance.

Dave

[studiocarter]

I used to put a lamp close to the film so I could see the reflection of the light off the wet and drying film; you can actually see the film dry. At that same point a small fan is aimed at the film to speed up the drying. The lamp heated the film and hastened the drying. However, Filmrenew was used and it is a very slow dryer. The distance was the spread of my arms or about 5 feet.

[Dave Anderson]

That's interesting. How fast would you say that you were able to wind the film? Hopefully a 50' reel wouldn't take an hour!

Thanks

Dave

[studiocarter]

With that stuff it wasn't fast, believe me. A faster drying chemical is needed for commercial work. This compound is for soaking brittle film in, and it is great for that, although, some do use a t-shirt and wind it up fast one way damp then back again with a dry cloth. I used to get wet spots so came up with the slow heat and fan method, and I never did try the fast two way t-shirt method.
Michael

[tim]

To (try and) solve the problem of drying time and cleaning speed, I made a removeable pillar that sits in a socket on the rewind board. This has a suitable film pulley on the top. All the bits, except for the pulley, can be found in DIY shops: I used that chrome tube and its fittings.

Depending on the height of your room, the pillar can be 1 m or more high, and increases the film path length by a bit less than twice the pillar height.

A hair drier or fan heater <b> at a safe distance</b> speeds film drying.

[Dave Anderson]

A simple question: Is film generally cleaned just before the transfer, or could one clean them a few weeks prior to the transfer, or would it really even matter? My point is that I won't be able to transfer for several weeks, but I have some time now that I'd like to use in cleaning the films.

Thanks

Dave

[Lucas Lightfeat]

Cleaning a few weeks before transfer is fine if you store it in a dust free environment (a film can). Splicing together your films onto larger reels can be done at the same time, saving you money on the transfer. Check what is the largest reel size of your chosen transfer machine and go for that. Changing reels takes time you will often be charged for.

My two deneri

Lucas