Darkroom layout question.

kjsphoto · Sep 8, 2004

Ok Finally geting ready to add electrical this week.

What I have done is created a 5x3 foot area for the enlarger. Will this be enough space?

For the other side I have a 5 foot sink and the rest 7 feet of counter top space. I am placing all counters at 36" from the ground. THe wetside all counters will be 27" wide.

Any input will be greatly appreciated!

The door took up room on the enlarger side and I also added a small desk for a computer to in case I need to catch up on APUG!!

Anyway any thoughts at this point woudl be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!

Kev

glbeas · Sep 8, 2004

Put in twice as many outlets as you think you need, you will find you use them all eventually. I put in 3 quad boxes in mine and wish I had more. I put wire shelving up near the ceiling for storage as well as several doored cabinets over the workspace. I also now have a panel of brown perfboard behind my enlarger thanks to an ingenius Apugger who shared his layout. I left it brown to soak up any stray enlarger leaks. A wall full of perfboard hooks is nice, all the carriers hang up as well as anything else hangable, including a small lamp and timer for highlight flashing.

kjsphoto · Sep 8, 2004

Awesome idea!

DO youthink that the 3x5 foot enlarger area will suffice? I am putting in the electrical boxes tommorrow and running wire. I will stagger the darkroom plugs on 2 breakers so every other one is on a seperate breaker (2 total).

ALso isnt is 1 100 watt bulb = 1 amp? So basically you can have 15 lights on 1 breaker correct?

glbeas · Sep 8, 2004

kjsphoto said:
Awesome idea!

DO youthink that the 3x5 foot enlarger area will suffice? I am putting in the electrical boxes tommorrow and running wire. I will stagger the darkroom plugs on 2 breakers so every other one is on a seperate breaker (2 total).

ALso isnt is 1 100 watt bulb = 1 amp? So basically you can have 15 lights on 1 breaker correct?

Sounds good on both points and yes 100 watts at 100 volts is 1 amp. Be sure the plugs are high on the wall so they are easy to access. Especially keep them high around the wet side.

kjsphoto · Sep 8, 2004

Yeah,

I am setting them f feet from the seiling so they should be about 1 foot above the counters and sink. I am also going to go with GFI plugs and not breakers as I hear GFI breakers have a tendency to go bad faster than the plugs.

It is really starting to come together!

L Gebhardt · Sep 9, 2004

If you have the room you should leave some space for a second enlarger. You can use this for color, flashing of paper, or just setup for a different format. Your 5x3 space should be OK for this, but I would rather have a bit more room to keep paper boxes out, notes, etc...

I would also put in more than one breaker into the darkroom. I would put the lights on a separate circuit from the rest, so if you trip the main one you still have lights. Also having a separate circiut for a paper dryer, hair dryer or microwave would not be a bad plan. And your power is more likely 110V, so a 100watt bulb is actuall drawing about .9 Amps. But your math makes for a safer load calculation.

Fintan · Sep 9, 2004

consider putting your enlarger on its own circuit

Black Dog · Sep 10, 2004

Fintan said:
consider putting your enlarger on its own circuit

And plan for future expansion-chances are what you want to doand how you want to do it will change .Another enlarger is always useful, eg for flashing.

Deckled Edge · Sep 11, 2004

Kevin,
I may be too late, as it's late Saturday, and your wiring may be finished by now, BUT: one thing that has saved my bacon several times is to put the room light switches far away from the fan/safelight switch.
In my darkroom the latter are by the door, but to turn on the lights I must reach high on the wall far away from every other switch in the darkroom. That way there will be no surprises by carelessly choosing the wrong switch. I saw this in Ansel's darkroom in Yosemite and was impressed enough to incorporate it in mine.
Choose a place on the wet side, as you usually turn on lights when your hands are wet with hypo or some other nasty drippy liquid.

Good luck with the darkroom. It's fun to build and much more fun when you use what you built.

Darkroom layout question.

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