Silly question maybe. I looked at the dollar stores and places like Target, but nothing. I actually want to use them to keep air out of some of my photographic chemicals as I use them (developer and fixer). Thanks.
As for where to buy them, that's a heck of a good question... perhaps a hobby store?? One other possibility would be a store that sells aquarium supplies; they are sometimes used as decorative bottom cover.
How about the polished decorative stones for use in vases? It would serve the same purpose for you, but they are not located in the toy section, so you would have missed them if that's where you are looking. I've seen bags of them at Dollar Tree in the home decor section.
How about the polished decorative stones for use in vases?
Funny. When I asked for marbles at the dollar store, they showed me these. I think large marbles, though, still might work better. But I'll keep these in mind as a last resort.
Marblesmarbles.com sure looks like a good idea. (Looking up marbles on eBay was dizzying.) And the toy stores and craft stores I hadn't really considered. Thanks for the ideas thus far.
Our whole elementary school,went crazy for marbles on year. The whole baseball diamond was a minefield. Little pot holes, everywhere. My dad back then, made me a plinko board for marbles. Man the kids at school went nuts!
Oh and I cleaned up big time. I still ponder where they all went too... Maybe never never land.....or a dollar store...
I used to fill my developer bottles with nitrogen to preserve it if I wasn't going to use it for a while since it's the reaction with the oxygen that makes it go bad. If it's film developer, you might consider a replenishment system. I used D76 and D76R replenisher and I could make a gallon of developer last for months (that's averaging 10 4x5 sheets/day). There's also a T-Max version, but I never used it.
Unless you buy new marbles for each batch of developer, you run the risk of your marbles contaminating your developer as you use them.
Another solution that might work for you is collapsible bottles, I remember seeing some specifically for photo chemicals. As you use the developer, you simply collapse the bottle to minimize or eliminate airspace.
I would only use marbles for chemical work. Stop bath is acetic acid, and will eat limestone and contaminate the stop bath.
I just use table vinegar and water for my stop. It's the developer and fixer that I want to preserve. I just don't go throught it all real fast.
Vinegar is acetic acid, just already more dilute than that sold for stop-bath. It might be interesting to see what kind of toning you'd get on a print if you used some nice fruity balsamic instead of distilled white ... ;-)
I used to fill my developer bottles with nitrogen to preserve it if I wasn't going to use it for a while since it's the reaction with the oxygen that makes it go bad. If it's film developer, you might consider a replenishment system. I used D76 and D76R replenisher and I could make a gallon of developer last for months (that's averaging 10 4x5 sheets/day). There's also a T-Max version, but I never used it.
It's actually paper developer (Ilford PQ). I have some D76 here but haven't started developing film yet.
Originally posted by Spork99:
Unless you buy new marbles for each batch of developer, you run the risk of your marbles contaminating your developer as you use them.
Why is that? Are marbles porous? I'm not doubting you, I'm just curious. I would have expected glass marbles could be cleaned thoroughly enough to not cross-contaminate.
Originally posted by Spork99:
Another solution that might work for you is collapsible bottles, I remember seeing some specifically for photo chemicals. As you use the developer, you simply collapse the bottle to minimize or eliminate airspace.
I had read different things about the collapsible bottles -- that they weren't fully airtight and such. Maybe I'm being too fussy about this; marbles seemed like a quick and dirty answer.
Thanks for the tips. I might have to look into nitrogen.
Vinegar is acetic acid, just already more dilute than that sold for stop-bath. It might be interesting to see what kind of toning you'd get on a print if you used some nice fruity balsamic instead of distilled white ... ;-)
Sounds like a Tom (tph1) experiment.
Thanks for the Oriental Trading link, by the way. A lot of marbles for one low price!
Just a thought about the nitrogen. It may be a worthwhile experiment to try using "Dustoff" or similar canned air. It may work just as good for displacing the oxygen, and be quite a bit less expensive than a nitrogen system. I remember using the plastic squeeze bottles, and they seemed to do a good job too.
