[Leica] winders, cassettes etc

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 10:11 PM -0700 7/15/04, Feli di Giorgio wrote:
>I know we went over this last week, but I can't remember if someone
>mentioned if it was possible to use the metal Leica cassettes in a
>standard bulk loader from Lloyd, Alden etc...
>
>I have also been looking at the Leica film winders and may just use one
>of those in my changing bag (the bag is huge). There are several models:
>AFLOO, ASPUL, AGRIF etc.
>
>Does anyone have any insight in to these?
>
>
>Thanks,
>
>Feli

I use an AFLOO that I've had for over 40 years. I mount it on the 
door frame inside my darkroom fairly high up, and put a small block 
of wood on the door frame approx. 36 exposures below. I have an 
AGRIF, ABLON and ABCOO as well, but never use them. I trim the film 
end on the bulk roll to slide into the spool center, pull the bulk 
roll down to the bottom wood block, and cut with scissors. Then I 
crank the film, put it into the cassette casings, and onto the next 
spool. I haven't timed it, but a 100' roll gets done in under 20 
minutes total in the darkroom. I trim the leader by hand also. Even 
when I was using LTM bodies I never used the ABLON template; it was 
always easier to do it freehand.

The AGRIF is just a spindle with a slot in one end. This would work 
in a changing bag. You would trim the end of the film to put in the 
slot in the center spool, feed the film through the open cassette 
which is otherwise fully assembled, and then use the AGRIF to wind up 
the film until the cassette was full. A problem I see with this is 
that small film chips will be loose in the bag, and Murphy being 
undoubtedly in control in the bag, would mean that some chips would 
enter some of the cassettes at inopportune times and probably bugger 
up your shutter later on. The ASPUL is the older version of the 
AFLOO, and isn't nearly as handy. Leave it to the collectors.

I'm not sure I would like to use the AFLOO in a changing bag (unless 
it's about darkroom size, with a doorframe to attach the AFLOO.

I think the Watson loader accepts the Leica cassettes.

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    *            Henning J. Wulff
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