Best piece of equipment?

argentic

Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Messages
317
Location
Echandelys,
Format
4x5 Format
What is your most ingenious, most practical piece of equipment in your darkroom? The detail that makes working so much easier.
 

Phillip P. Dimor

Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2004
Messages
1,057
Location
Westport, MA
Format
Large Format
For me, it's my laser level which I use to align and check my enlarger before each session. It is so quick, simple and accurate to use.. I find that generally my easels get bent up out of shape (particularly speed-ez-l's), I use a dab of that 3M or similar poster adhesive. It's like that moldable eraser stuff that you can pull apart and stick together, like putty.. I put a dab of that under each corner of the easel and place the laser alignment tool on the easel, pressing each corner down (or lifting up) until the easel is completely aligned with the enlarger. Takes a few minutes, stays for the whole session if you are careful.

Also, sharpies, post-it notes, 3m Painters Tape (the blue kind, for resealing paper packs and boxes. the BEST i've found as it won't tear up your boxes, stays sticky after being pulled away tons of times.. $4 a roll from lowes or home depot will last you a long, long time.)

I'd love a transmission step wedge. I have a calibrated kodak one, helps with eyeballing negative density and with some alt. processes. I think that a 4x5 stouffer one would be NICE, sandwiched with film in a 4x5 holder to calibrate your processes. I guess that's another post..
 

TheDreadPirateRobins

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
168
Format
35mm
I really like a good set of tongs. I have skin sensitivities to all sorts of chemicals, plants, etc., so any time I can hold something relatively benign, such as a set of tongs, instead of dragging my hand through a pool of hazardous chemical I consider that to be a good thing.
 

raucousimages

Member
Joined
May 12, 2003
Messages
824
Location
Salt Lake
Format
Large Format
I took 4ft X 8Ft sheets of "frost white board", cut them to 2X8 and glued them to the walls. This is the material they make dry erase write on boards out of. I can make notes right on the walls.
 

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Messages
19,974
Location
Honolulu, HI
Format
Large Format
Maybe my Metrolux timer.

But I'm setting up the new darkroom in our new apartment right now, and I have the luxury of a spare bathroom to convert, so I can adapt the plumbing in non-destructive ways. The shower stall will be a permanent darkroom area, and the bathroom can still function as a bathroom. My best discovery on the plumbing front is a four-spigot hose manifold, each with its own ball valve, so I've got water coming from the shower outlet into a Delta 1 temperature monitor (you can find it at B&H), and then the hose manifold. I've got one garden hose for cleaning and general use, a 3/8" hose for the print washer, I'll get another hose barb for the film washer (I think it's 7/16"), and a very flexible 1/4" latex hose for local bleaching use.

I got it at Home Depot, but this is it--

http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/1590611
 

Phillip P. Dimor

Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2004
Messages
1,057
Location
Westport, MA
Format
Large Format
raucousimages said:
I took 4ft X 8Ft sheets of "frost white board", cut them to 2X8 and glued them to the walls. This is the material they make dry erase write on boards out of. I can make notes right on the walls.
Click to expand...

I think that's an ingenious idea, perfect for the wall where you keep your info or by your processor or developing supplies. Times, notes.. love it.
 

Allen Friday

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
882
Format
ULarge Format
My trash can, which gets used many times in every darkroom session.
 

DannL

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
586
Location
Oklahoma
Format
Multi Format
The electric timer.
 

phenix

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
216
Location
penguin-cold
Format
Multi Format
Two old, former shelves made of wood that curved with the age. I put them on the counter, the concave side face up, and put on them the developer and the fixer trays. Now I can slowly and carefully shake the trays to allow chemicals to refresh at the gelatin surface. It simply makes the processing much pleasant.
 

2F/2F

Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2008
Messages
8,031
Location
Los Angeles,
Format
Multi Format
Trays with ridges in the bottom.
 

Rick Jones

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2004
Messages
127
Location
Maryland
Format
Multi Format
It's not ingenious nor the most practical piece of equipment. It doesn't really make working much easier but yet is indispensable in my book - my dry mount press for it's ability to literally transform the appearance of an unmounted print.
 

Vaughn

Subscriber
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
10,192
Location
Humboldt Co.
Format
Large Format
My hot water kettle -- can't do those all-nighters without my tea!

Vaughn
 

Ken Nadvornick

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2005
Messages
4,942
Location
Monroe, WA, USA
Format
Multi Format
My Hass K-250 Intellifaucet. Worth every penny. (And it took a lot of pennies...)

Right now in August my ambient water temp just peaked for the year. Cold line is running about 67.3F. This unit is so good it can easily add the 0.7F for a perfect - and sustainable - 68.0F. And do it reliably at 0.25 gal/min flow rate. Also works equally well for the higher temps often required for color processes. Year-round tempered water bath heaven.

Have used it now for five years without a single problem. I do filter both incoming lines down to one micron to keep junk out of the unit. And I always turn off both hot and cold lines upstream, then drain pressure from the unit after each session. Probably not required, but after all those pennies, it makes me feel better...

Ken
 

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Messages
19,974
Location
Honolulu, HI
Format
Large Format
Vaughn said:
My hot water kettle -- can't do those all-nighters without my tea!

Vaughn
Click to expand...

It's also handy for steaming albumenized paper to loosen it up and to harden the albumen before sensitizing.
 

MurrayMinchin

Membership Council
Subscriber
Joined
Jan 9, 2005
Messages
5,481
Location
North Coast BC Canada
Format
Hybrid
A wall chart with emergence times, development factors, and resulting paper development times. I keep my working solution until it starts to run out of gas (sometimes for several months) so needed a way to compensate for temperature variations and for the first whispers of developer fatigue to get consistent results. The developer is a Glycin/Metol one with a really slow emergence time (but picks up steam later) that allows me to use the films clear edge as the emergence area, which also helps with consistency. When Life gets complicated and I can't get into the darkroom to print for a couple weeks I can pick up from exactly where I left off, or nail reprints with the same batch of working solution several weeks later.

Murray
 

consumptive

Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2006
Messages
23
Location
Springfield,
Format
Medium Format
after twenty years of darkroom work i finally got a foot switch for enlarger timer. wow.

but then I picked up a beseler 35mm negatrans 35mm negative carrier and wonder how i ever lived without it.
 

Mike Wilde

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
2,903
Location
Misissauaga
Format
Multi Format
diy aligner

A black neg, set in neg carrier. Scratch the emulsion away with a pin head. Pull the neg, and use a ruler to score with the pin from corner to corner. Bingo. An enlarger alignment tool made out of a waste prcessed bit of film leader.

Oh, and a 'darkroom' microwave on a shelf above the washing machine next door in the laundry/dry chem area. Takes cold stock solutions and stored distilled water to 20C in a flash for b&w or 38C for colour too. Most of my graduates are too tall, so a 4cup pyrex measuring cup finishes off this rig.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…