A non pictorial update:
The walls, electrical, and plumbing are in.
The walls were a small pain. Ceiling height was less than standard the floor grossly uneven. This required all the sheet rock to be cut and to be cut at an angle to maintain a 'nice' butt edge. The existing walls were of course not straight or smooth either, which in the instance of the cinderblock exterior wall will make for a less than elegant light sealing trim. In hindsight and for the most part the walls were not a big deal.
Plumbing was a larger pain. The house has a mix of copper and galvanized pipe. I was able to tap into the cold prior to the galvanized. The feed pipe into the hot water heater is galvanized and the out is copper which re connects to galvanized. If you have ever had to deal with galvanized you know that it does not like to be disturbed, especially at or near a mixed metal joint and if the galvanized is old. This was my situation. After tapping into the hot a downstream joint began to drip. Horrifying thoughts of repiping the better part of the basement swam through my head. The joint was an old (as in 1920) compression fitting that showed signs of corrosion. I added support to the pipe to relieve pressure from the joint and it stopped leaking.
Meanwhile, the cold entered one side of the darkroom the hot on the opposite side. The wall that they both entered is not straight in any direction. I was able to join them up to the first of two water panels, but the appearance of the copper moving toward and away from and spanning the entire wall is less than attractive.
I still have the other water panel to set up which will require the hot water to cris-cross the cold -- pretty ugly.
The drainage was no problem and silver recovery will be a breeze. All my equipement has seperate discharges.
Electrical, turned out not to be an issue, thanks in large part to the advice received from apuggers on a separate thread.
So the 1st water panel (wing lynch electronically controlled WP) is hooked up; the film processor (wing-lynch 4e) and the paper processor (Hope ind. 26") are online. The enlarger and drop table are in pieces scattered in boxes and by their lonesome throughout the darkroom.
The enlarger I have is a Durst L1200 on a really nice and heavy drop table. The drop table weighs slightly more than my car and is a joy to move. The combination of the enlarger and table require a minimum ceiling height of 91. Between the floor joices (sp) of all the areas for my darkroom there is about a 5 area where the darkroom floor to the next floor subflooring is just over 91. I cut a whole in the ceiling in a couple places until I found an unobstructed area which meets my height requirements and move the table in place.
The head on the L1200 is spring loaded. This makes raising and lowering the very heavy head easy. It also makes the head unmanageable in anything other than vertical.
After positioning the table and boxing in an area between the joices (sp) I attempt to put the enlarger on the table. This sucker is pretty heavy. I lock the head toward the bottom of the column so that it will be easier to manage. I get the enlarger just shy of the base and decide to reposition my hands so I can raise it the next couple inches. To do this I need to tilt the enlarger about 20 degrees off of vertical. The head comes loose and flies toward the top of the column, which is where my right hand is. Just as the head reaches terminal velocity it also meets my hand and my hand meets the block at the top of the column.
So here I am, enlarger griping my hand about 3' off of a poured cement floor. Blood is pouring out from under the nail on my index finger. I need to right the enlarger, lower it to the ground so I can lower the head. I do this. Most of the blood is on the floor and table so clean-up is a snap.
I decide to leave the enlarger and work on something else.
I start up the wing lynches. The water panel can't control the temperature. B&W is no issue, colour zooms to 130F. These things beep when they fall out of temperature and of course its beeping incessantly. The film processor won't fill with water, and it won't pump bleach -- Fix and dev are fine. The solenoids for bleach and the water inlet are gone. During the diagnostics and testing the WP is beeping its fool brain off -- real calming.
After a long search and loads of phone calls I am forced to order the water inlet solenoid from my local WL dist. I get a huge discount only 126.00 normally [if you can call this normal] it is 190.00. The bleach solenoid I have in inventory.
Whilst I wait for the WL bits I have moved onto the Hope.
Why fix the WP when it is providing such pleasant background noise?
More on this later.
