Processor cleanliness is a PITA, but is the price you pay for the
efficiency and speed of an automated processor. It is important to
understand that chemistry will squeeze in ANYWHERE it gets a chance.
Between tanks, gear bearings, it can even follow the line of a piece
of wiring. Note that some of the chemistry is airborne (warm
chemistry = evaporation) - therefore, it can condense on any cool
surface.
Many moons ago, we had a 50" RT EP-2 machine that we *thought* we
were cleaning adequately. One day, from the dark side of the lab, I
could see a very faint light coming from underneath the processor.
Light leak from the other side of the lab? LED from the circuit board?
At 10:57 PM 8/20/2006, you wrote:
Dear Richard,
thanks for your help !
It might be useful to contact Ilford to find out if they can still supply instructions for the machine.
I do have the manual, that suggested my developer is contaminated.
I suspect the machine is not really clean. A cleaner made from Sulfuric Acid and Potassium Dichromate will remove silver and some other contaminants but will not remove Silver Sulfide deposits. Kodak has a small data sheet on its web site about removing these deposits and also sponge silver. Sometimes it takes scrubbing.
If this machine was out of service for any length of time before you got it there is likely to be crystalized chemistry in it that will not come out with routine cleaning. Again, check with Ilford about suggestions on cleaning and preferred chemistry.
The machine was out of service for over a year and I did scrub a lot. I used a Tetenal Colour Machine Cleaner on it. The tanks of the machine (bar the water/rinse compartment) had a coating of very bright yellow sulphur on them. I scrubbed that using the cleaner (came off very easily) and left the cleaner solution in there overnight hoping it would dissolve away the sulphur I cannot reach mechanically.
I also put in (Ilford reccomendation) some anti-algae solution - they recommend this especially for the rinse tanks, thats where you get some gelatin coming off the print and its great food for algae apparently.
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