From: "Toni Nikkanen" <toni@tuug.fi>

Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 4:08 AM

Unfortunately, the local photo stores here have not stocked Rodinal for some
time. Even when Agfa was fully in business the local stores stocked only
Kodak and Ilford, and these days the inventory is getting thinner and
thinner. My only practical source for Rodinal  was via mail order, and even
then B&H would not ship it due to hazardous materials rules. Adorama and
others would ship it, but would apply a surcharge due to the hazmat issue..

I took a look at ebay and see that people are selling it there, and I also
noticed JandCPhoto.com had it in stock a few weeks ago, though it was not
there today (the original R09 Rodinal is there.) For now I can just start
using my stockpile and wait and see what happens in the future!

Thanks again -

MCC

I wrote:

To extend my orignal posting, I found the formula with a web search,

I'm not sure about the sodium hydroxide though. I can get lye based drain
cleaner, but I'm not sure how pure it is. For example it is illegal to
sell ammonia based cleaning products here.  

Is it possible to produce the same formula with a less caustic and more
easily available substance such as sodium bicarbonate? I can get that at
a pharmacy in 100 gram  bottles and if luck is with me I can get 250 grams
(about 8 ounces) of Arm and Hammer baking soda in a plastic bottle.

Sodium sulfite is something I would have to get at a photo store in Tel Aviv
(I'm in Jerusalem).

As things go, the generic tylenol you buy for $10 for 300 "caplets" is
probably made by Teva in Israel (they are the world's largest maker of
generic drugs), but I pay about half of that for 50.

Geoff.

I've run across several, including:

http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?p=218374#post218374
http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22301&page=4&pp=10

The second one (in the last post on the page) is claimed to work with
Rodinal times and dilutions. Note that I've not used this one, although I
did use another one. I've not included a link to that one because it
worked OK with some films but not with others; it was somebody's early
experiment and not really a close equivalent to Rodinal.

The generic equivalent of Tylenol will probably be fine. With any such
drug, you'll be adding unknown substances (fillers and whatnot) into the
developer. With luck these will be photographically inert, and my and
others' experiments suggest that they often are, but I can't promise that.
(FWIW, I used store-brand acetaminophen tablets in my brief experiment
with this type of developer.)

For lye, that's tougher. In the US, a product called Red Devil Lye is sold
as a drain cleaner and is pure enough for this purpose, although it's
getting hard to find, apparently because lye is an ingredient in
methamphetamines. Most lye-based drain cleaners include metal shavings or
other things that make the products unsuitable for use in film developers
(or illegal drugs). Substances such as sodium bicarbonate aren't suitable
substitutes because, as I understand it, part of the reason for the lye in
acetaminophen-based developers is that the hydroxide in the lye reacts
with the acetaminophen to create para aminophenol. My understanding is
that sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, borax, etc., won't react with
the acetaminophen, or at least not in a way that generates para
aminophenol. I'm not a chemist, though, so my understanding of this is
limited at best and may be substantially wrong.

You might want to check out hobbyist soap-making outlets in your area. Lye
(and potassium hydroxide, which might work in such formulas, although I've
not tested this) is used in soap-making, so hobby shops with soap-making
supplies should have it.