Chris Moss shares his recent experience with automated Rondinax tanks
I have been using a motorised base for years with my Rondinax 35u, and with a little wooden adaptor, the same base works with a Rondinax 60. Recently the motor gave out and I replaced it, but I haven’t been able to find one in which the plastic gears don’t slip in the axle, resulting in lots of whining (from both the motor and from me!) but no rotation. So I decided to finally open the Lab-Box, which I got with the Kickstarter, but never had need to use since the Rondinax tanks works so well. Two or three Amazon motors later, I found one that has a built in metal gearbox and 62rpm on 12volts. I attached the large yellow K’Nex pin gear to the Lab-Box knob by drilling through the knob and glueing a shortened K’Nex rod with attached pin gear in place using JB Weld Plastic Bonder. You do have to make some effort to get it centralised. A couple of small gears were epoxied to the output shaft of the motor—I used two, carefully aligned, so that any up and down motion of the pin gear caused from poor centralisation would still keep the pins in contact with the teeth of the motor gears. There was no easy way of attaching the motor to the base but as I held it in place for a test, I noticed it was trying to push itself towards the right in reaction to the force it was applying to the yellow gear; it just needed something to prevent the movement, which the little wooden wall and a couple of 3/4″ tacks supplied. This means the motor can be lifted on and off easily, and that led to another thought…So having got the Lab-Box working, I took the old motor off the Rondinax base and mounted the new one the same way, except this time I used pins alone.
I have to say it works even better than the Lab-Box as the reel on the Rondinax is far easier to turn. Here are links to the new motor on the Rondinax base. The ugly slot ripped into the base lets chemical leaks from the reel axle drain though into an old flannel underneath rather than have the liquids pool around the motor. Once again, it works with both 35u and 60 tanks.
http://drmoss.ca/Web%20Images/Rondinax_base_motor_dismounted.jpeg
http://drmoss.ca/Web%20Images/Rondinax_base_motor_mounted.jpeg
http://drmoss.ca/Web%20Images/Rondinax_in_place.jpeg
I put a roll of XP2 Super through it last night, using Diafine (really! It works!) and it worked beautifully. I put the film in the tank the usual way, set it on the base and switch on. Add the first solution and ask Siri to set a timer for five minutes. Then I go and do something more interesting for five minutes, returning to lift off the tank, pour out the solution, replace it and add the next solution and set another timer.Once the fixing is done, I take off the lid and add rinsing water directly up to the visible axle, pour off and repeat until I’m happy, then add a couple of drops of PhotoFlo to the last wash. Definitely the lazy way of developing without the Jobo pricetag.
I have used the motorised tank for D76, HC-110, Rodinal, Diafine, Qualls’ monobath, C-41 and E-6 processes. It’s bulletproof!Finally, I have ordered a second motor as a backup, and will leave it mounted on the Lab-Box base. I do have a second 12v supply I can cannibalise from an old external hard drive. I’ll probably use the Rondinax tanks primarily still (being easier and smoother to load and turn) but it’s nice to know the Lab-Box is there as a backup.