buying the right basins for my new darkroom

bonk · May 25, 2008

Finally I am going to be able to build my own darkroom. (Unfortunately only in a cellar of an old tenement - I hope its not going to be too wet there - but that is a completely different story.) Now I am trying to find the right basisns for it. One for watering the prints and one for cleaning the equipment (bottles, breaker etc.). I was looking for a cheap solution and I found this: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220236430882&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012

Is there anything wrong with this? They are made from a plastic material called "duraform". WIll there possibly any chemicals that I could be using where plastic isn't apropiate? What else that do I need to consider when buying basins that I might not be aware of right now? Note that the last time I had my own darkroom I was 12 years old.

df cardwell · May 25, 2008

Looks good !

yellowcat · May 25, 2008

I think "duraform" is a polyamide (nylon) material and so should resist any chemicals you are likely to use.

yellowcat · May 25, 2008

Is your darkroom going to have a water supply and drain?

DannL · May 25, 2008

I use the same basins. I found it to be an inexpensive but awkward solution. I did not want anything permanent and this suffices. The water supply is connected to a garden hose only when I need water. I configured a tube to raise the water level to 9 inches in each basin. To drain one basin, simply remove a tube. Maybe this will spark ideas for a cheaper solution. A single basin would work quite well, also.

fschifano · May 25, 2008

I have two similarly shaped and sized basins side by side in my laundry room. To say they are inconvenient is an understatement. They are too small to easily wash a tray after use, let alone use for washing prints. Look for something that is at least twice as wide, and shallow - i.e. a real darkroom sink. Eventually, I will replace those two slop sinks (which is what they are called in the US) with something more appropriate. I don't really need running water in the darkroom proper, so I doubt that I'd relocate the fixture.

BTW, you should not need to go to ebay for this sort of thing. Likely you'll find them in your local hardware supply place. Here you can find them very cheaply at Home Depot, or Lowes. The material will give you no problems with darkroom chemistry.

bonk · May 25, 2008

yellowcat said:
Is your darkroom going to have a water supply and drain?

Yes, why are you asking ?

yellowcat · May 25, 2008

bonk said:
Yes, why are you asking ?

You should see if you could get a sink or wet bench made to fit your darkroom, there are companies that can fabricate one to your specification out of rigid pvc.

http://www.richards.uk.com/

There are many labs closing down, maybe you could pick up something from one of those.

Bob F. · May 25, 2008

Assuming you will be printing, you are probably better off with a long, shallow sink. Check out this thread ((there was a url link here which no longer exists)) but be warned: there are over 600 posts ... My preformed plastic darkroom sink is a little over 2m long, 70cm front to back and just 15cm deep.

Good luck, Bob.

edz · May 25, 2008

bonk said:
Is there anything wrong with this? They are made from a plastic material called "duraform". WIll there possibly any chemicals that I could be using where plastic isn't apropiate?

Why bother? Since you showed a link in BRD I'll assume you are in Germany. You should be able to get a nice 2nd hand smallish Kindermann or Meteor Siegen washing sink for not much more. Its quite sufficient for environments without trays (I use Nova slots). If you want, however, to use trays you will need something larger and short of the larger Kindermann or Meteor sinks (which are quite large) you might want to consider a Nova sink. Enough room for 3 trays they are plastic but well made, not overly heavy and don't need special legs.

yellowcat · May 27, 2008

I was thinking about this today.
How about making your own wet bench out of marine plywood , you could then tile it with ceramic tiles using waterproof tile adhesive.

buying the right basins for my new darkroom

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