If you know me a bit, you know that I started to make and sell photography equipment to help the photographic comunity. It all started from my personal need, wanting to have a machine to rotate my paterson tank. The very first one I made was built from a K’nex set and a couple random pieces I had around.
At the time my friend Tom was playing with 3d printing and it peaked my interest. I decided to buy the smallest-cheapest-easiest printer. It was indeed tiny but was enough to see if I could design and make a machine with it. I had only a Paterson 2 reel tank at the time so I made it to fit it. It was “big” and bulky but easy and it worked! More important, I liked the development workflow and the results it was giving me. I realized that it did not cost much to make and that I may be able to offer it at a very reasonnable price so the amateur photographers like myself who could benefit from a small easy processor and its workflow.
Wanting to make it more compatible and efficient, I redesigned the whole thing to add some functionality to it. I made it smaller and able to rotate more tank sizes. I first started selling it on Ebay. It sold well but it was hard to build, some components were very difficult and time consuming to prepare, plus the assembly was hard and long. While I was trying to make it as affordable as possible it still needed to generate some profit to make the adventure viable and it wasn’t….
I wanted to keep the cost low and make it better. So I went on to design the latest B’s processor as you know it today with all of its advanced features and movements. While I had to increase the price of the more advance B’s processor, I still kept it affordable.The OG was $90 compared to the curent $145.
So now to what’s old and new…. For some time I wanted to release for “free” the original machine but the obvious thing was that it was hard to build! Between my 9 to 5, two kids, and taking care of the buisness, time is at a premium! This year I hired a friend part time to help me build things and that finally freed some time to get to this project. I’m happy to say the OG B’s processor is now re-designed and easy to build with all its 3d printing files available to download online (files are here) for Free! I will also offer ready to build kits in B’s analog shop (Get it here).
You will have three options to make your own:
Buy the whole kit in my shop (my printing is know to be quite good ;) )
Buy the Hardware only and print your own parts (psu, motor, screws, etc..)
Or source and print all of it yourself. (Parts list and assembly guide is on the download page)
If you are on a budget, I hope this simple little machine will answer your need. For more pictures and the full specification check it in the shop.
Old machine on the left, redesign on the right