E6 3 BATH BY RAYCO

By Bill Broadhurst 

It was the demonstration of 3 bath E6 at Repton AGM which roused my interest in having a go at this very simple method. Having been a regular RAYCO customer for many years I decided to try out their kit. This is available as a complete kit, or, as they advertise, buy th developers and use your own Blix, which option I chose. The 1200ml size comes in three bottles, one first developer and part A & B colour developer each labelled as containing 240ml. More of that later. Instructions clear and simple. I W&M`d the Blix to a RAYCO formula which I have used many times in the past got to work. 

Using 600ml to cover two films at once, instant success, very pleased. The next pair of films were also just as pleasing, but only just. There is inevitably some loss of liquid in wetting the film and tank by the first developer and the top of the top film was barely covered  leaving an undeveloped strip along one edge, fortunately not affecting the picture area. Then I imposed a self inflicted injury. The Blix was very slow to work and I found that I had to increase the time to about 15 minutes to get a clear leader, returning the film to the Blix until full clearance had been reached. Now the Blix used is based on EDTA and I decided to use Bleach and separate Fix which had been successful in the past. The bleach is based on potassium Ferricyanide. Result heavy pink cast through the film and I cannot get rid of it. Suggestions welcome, polite ones only. I put up with the 15 minute period in the original Blix. 

Having done the first 8 films I came to mix up another 600 ml for the next batch. Now the original bottles alleged to contain 240 ml and I had used 120 ml. Without even a computer I reckoned that there should be 120 ml left. Instead of simply adding the correct amount of water caution took over and I measured the amount left and it  was not 120 ml but nearer 170 ml. had I just gone ahead without measuring I would have, presumably, finished up with over strength solutions. But here was a useful bonus. By making up the surplus to working strength I had a replenisher top-up and could keep up the volume of the working solutions. At the same time I hoped that it would keep up the working streng

th leaving no need to increase development times for subsequent films.

Thanks RAYCO!