PaRodinal

Donald Qualls’ Parodinal Recipe.

Water – 250ml
Paracetamol – 30x 500mg tablets
Sodium Sulfite – 50g
Sodium Hydroxide – 20g

EDIT:
Yep, Sodium Sulfite isn’t Washing Soda…that would be Sodium Carbonate. That’s what I get for not taking highschool chemistry. So what I made up before was pretty much useless. I’ll get some Sodium Sulfite and try all this again.

Sodium Sulfite is also known, and is available, commonly as Washing Soda. Harmless stuff.
Paracetamol is just paracetamol, also known as Panadol (or Tylenol in the US). Pretty cheap too, under a dollar for 24 tablets of generic brand. I use Coles home brand. Also Harmless.
Sodium Hydroxide is known as Caustic Soda or Lye, and is also fairly common. Highly corrosive, please wear gloves when you mix this. If you get it in your eyes, bye bye eyesight, so goggles too. In combination with water, reaction produces a fair amount of heat. Because of this, please add the solution to the sodium hydroxide, rather than add sodium hydroxide to the solution. Just to be safe.

Mix in the order indicated, let stand for 72 hours (3 days), then dilute and use an Rodinal. Behaves very similarly, times and dilutions are apparently totally interchangeable. Shelf life of approximately 90 days.

I’ve mixed up a batch of this, and it’s sitting down in the darkroom stewing away. I’ll run a test in a few days and develop two rolls, one in Rodinal and one in this. Should be fun!