Clayton's banding problems

>I measured the banding on my prints.....they're about 1/4 inch wide (that's the dark bit) and the pitch (start of one band to the start of the next band) varies between 1/2 and 3/4 inch......they run right across the print but aren't obvious unless you have a real close look in the midtones

Ouch!!!

Clayton,

Have you taken your mechanism totally apart and cleaned it? If not that is the first thing to do. I can coach you on the finer points of adjusting the governor and how to clean gears etc. You can't blame the spring on this problem. How about one revolution of the governor? How much film would pass by the slit? If not there, try the next gear in line until there is a match as to one revolution of a gear and one band length. Either something is wobbling or there is a gear that has junk stuck in one tooth space. More than once I have dug out a piece of paper leader that became tightly jammed into a gear. You can usually see the problem without taking the upper plate apart.

Someone told me somewhere? that you can get rid of them....I'm not after perfection.....just close :>)

Yes, you can get rid of them. I have made more than several huge murals from cirkut negatives and little or no banding could be detected in the print. My biggest print was 12 feet high and 110 feet long, and have made several that were 8 feet by 50 feet with more than adequate sharpness and minimal unevenness during exposure.

Keep us posted.

Ron