Darkroom Move Almost Complete...

Jim Moore · Jun 1, 2004

Well, since I had an extended weekend off work I decided to move my Darkroom from the laundry room to it's very own room in the basement.

I've had a 6' Delta ABS Sink sitting around for several months and even got a stand built for it

The fun will begin tomorrow, that's when I'm going to run the plumbing to hook up the sink.

Wish me luck!

Jim

david b · Jun 1, 2004

I am so jealous.

Jeremy · Jun 1, 2004

congratulations!

glbeas · Jun 1, 2004

I like your arrangement at the enlarger, I may try to emulate it. The sink is another story. That thing will limit you to maybe 11x14 prints at best. I had one for a while and couldn't fit my trays into it very well. I wound up getting an old morgue table from a supplier my wife knows and redoing the plumbing in it. It has a sink on one end with a faucet and I mounted four more spigots in the holes next to the sink for my film washers and print washers.
I have the Wing Lynch water control too, they are great!

bmac · Jun 1, 2004

WOW! That looks great. I'm going to crack open a beer and go cry in my darkroom now.

Flotsam · Jun 1, 2004

In my "darkroom", the only water is in the next room. All my film and print washing is done around a dainty little bathroom sink. You have no idea how jealous I am of all you guys with big, luxurious processing sinks (and a place to put it). Washing is the biggest chore of my darkroom evening.

dlin · Jun 2, 2004

Your darkroom is just too darned neat! I mean that both ways. Touse it up a bit so I don't feel so guilty.

Jim Moore · Jun 2, 2004

dlin said:
Your darkroom is just too darned neat! I mean that both ways. Touse it up a bit so I don't feel so guilty.

HAHA... You didn't see it before I moved everything

Gary, The sink is just temporary. I've been looking for a reasonably priced 8' stainless steel sink that is within driving distance. So far no luck, that's why I ordered the Delta for now.

Something else I need to install tomorrow too. I picked up a portable Husky air compressor (and water trap to fit on the line) today at Home Depot.

http://www.homedepot.com/cmc_upload/HDUS/EN_US/asset/images/eplus/163858_4.jpg

I got tired of buying all those cans of compressed air to dust off negatives. I figure that I can put it under the workbench and run the air hose up the back and through the pegboard. With the small amount of air used to dust off the negatives I won't need to run it very often, just long enough to charge up the tank.

Should pay for it's self quickly.

Thanks for the nice comments!

Jim

Jeremy · Jun 2, 2004

Flotsam said:
In my "darkroom", the only water is in the next room. All my film and print washing is done around a dainty little bathroom sink. You have no idea how jealous I am of all you guys with big, luxurious processing sinks (and a place to put it). Washing is the biggest chore of my darkroom evening.

Flotsam,
I can feel your pain

I actually have a fiberglass darkroom sink, but can't hook it up to the water source across the hall. I just walk the prints into the bathroom to wash them.

Ole · Jun 2, 2004

Jeremy Moore said:
Flotsam,
I can feel your pain

So can I - my nearest water is one floor down. But we have cats, so everything is dried another floor down where the cats have no access.

So I carry water up one set of stairs for processing, prints or films (in water) down again for intermediate wash, then down a very narrow stair for final wash and drying.

And that's about all the exercise I get these days - at least when it's raining.

André Ferreira · Jun 2, 2004

Good luck! I wish I could get so much room in my place to build me one of those.
André Ferreira

glbeas · Jun 2, 2004

JMoore said:
HAHA... You didn't see it before I moved everything

Gary, The sink is just temporary. I've been looking for a reasonably priced 8' stainless steel sink that is within driving distance. So far no luck, that's why I ordered the Delta for now.

Something else I need to install tomorrow too. I picked up a portable Husky air compressor (and water trap to fit on the line) today at Home Depot.

http://www.homedepot.com/cmc_upload/HDUS/EN_US/asset/images/eplus/163858_4.jpg

I got tired of buying all those cans of compressed air to dust off negatives. I figure that I can put it under the workbench and run the air hose up the back and through the pegboard. With the small amount of air used to dust off the negatives I won't need to run it very often, just long enough to charge up the tank.

Should pay for it's self quickly.

Thanks for the nice comments!

Jim

Do some testing to be sure the pump blows clean and doesn't generate a static charge. Filters are available to remove any dust or oil from the airflow, really not sure what you would do in the event of static in the air. Resident engineers?
Another thing you might play with is a vacuum line from outside the darkroom for cleanup without stirring up a cloud of dust and activating vacuum easels for borderless printing. I used the 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe ran through the wall. You don't need to glue the parts in the room if you need to move things occasionally. A regular ribbed vacuum hose fit into an elbow tight enough to make a working connection to my vacuum easel and allow easy use for sucking up dust bunnies.

jovo · Jun 2, 2004

our (my wife uses it too) darkroom is on the ground or should i say below ground floor of our house and as such had no plumbing available initially. but....we discovered that we could get an 'up' pump to bring water to the house waste line which made the sink a reality. it works quite well and isn't on constantly, but rather waits till there's a certain amount of liquid to work with and then cycles on briefly and shuts off. not typical, but it works.

your facility looks terrific. my wife is enamoured of the pegboard. nice job!!

jovo · Jun 2, 2004

btw, cans of compressed air can be obtained very, very reasonably at places like BJ's or Sam's Club. worth a look if the compressed air deal doesn't give you clean enough air.

Jim Moore · Jun 2, 2004

O.K. I just finished running the CPVC pipes from the laundry room to my new darkroom, took about two hours.

I haven't hooked into the water lines yet. When I picked up the other stuff I forgot to get shut off valves. I was going to go ahead and hook it up without them, but i decided that might not be a good idea

I also got the air compressor all hooked up. It seems to work well, but time will tell if it's going to generate a static charge. Thanks Gary, I didn't even think about watching for that.

I'll get the valves after work tomorrow and hopefully I'll be back in business!

Jim

Jorge Oliveira · Jun 2, 2004

You lucky guis that have a darkroom!
I've always used the bathroom, and final wash everything in the laundry.
Next month we will be moving to another apartment, where space will be even tighter...

Many times I do not print due to the hassle of assembling/disassembling the bathroom, or my younger son won't be able to shower.

Jorge O

Jim Moore · Jun 2, 2004

Jorge Oliveira said:
You lucky guis that have a darkroom!
I've always used the bathroom, and final wash everything in the laundry.
Next month we will be moving to another apartment, where space will be even tighter...

Many times I do not print due to the hassle of assembling/disassembling the bathroom, or my younger son won't be able to shower.

Jorge O

I know the feeling Jorge,

We just bought this house about 9 months ago. Up 'till now I had to do the "Bathroom" thing too.

Jim

photomc · Jun 3, 2004

Jorge Oliveira said:
You lucky guis that have a darkroom!
I've always used the bathroom, and final wash everything in the laundry.
Next month we will be moving to another apartment, where space will be even tighter...

Jorge O

Jorge, Boy can I relate..up until the current place, all I could do was film in the bathroom. Waited 25 yrs to get a darkroom, then had to start the build out of it, seemed like it took forever - thought the digital demons were going to beat me out of the darkroom for awhile, instead they did me the favor of driving prices down, now I have a Beseler 45 and 23c II.

Keep the faith, Jorge, good things will come your way sooner or later (at least I will have good thoughts for you).

geraldatwork · Jun 3, 2004

I should consider myself lucky because I have a pretty good area in my garage for a darkroom approx. 12'X12' with a slop sink. But it is only semi-permanent with only the dry area and safe lights permanent. The rest of the space (wet area) is a laundry area. So I have to put up light blocking curtains, set up a table for the processing trays, and put the finishing trays on the washer and dryer. So between set up and clean up that takes well over an hour and a half. It doesn't pay to set up the darkroom unless I am going to do an all night session. I wish I could go in there for a quick one print session.

Jorge Oliveira · Jun 3, 2004

Let's see:

I can become a pro. This way, I will have a nice excuse to rent a place big enought for a darkroom.

Jorge O

Thomassauerwein · Jun 3, 2004

Jim, if you allow the air compressor to fill then sit it will accumulate moisture. Then spit on your neg and eventually rust the inside of the tank then spit rusty moisture onto your negs. These compressors work really well but you need to open the valve (at the bottom of the tank) after every use to blow out the moisture, then leave it open till your next use. I use mine all the time for dust control in the dark room. I also recommend using a second flow valve on the handle to further control the volume of air coming out in bursts. Don't want to accidently blow the neg out of the neg holder and scratch it.

Enjoy your new residence it looks great, Needs a little messing up though.

Jim Moore · Jun 3, 2004

Thomassauerwein said:
Jim, if you allow the air compressor to fill then sit it will accumulate moisture. Then spit on your neg and eventually rust the inside of the tank then spit rusty moisture onto your negs.

Thanks for the info. I thought about that last night when I was hooking it up. I did get one of the in-line filters to help trap the bad stuff, but I'll be sure to empty the tank after each session.

Enjoy your new residence it looks great, Needs a little messing up though

Don't worry though, the darkroom will get messed up this weekend

Jim

Jeffrey A. Steinberg · Oct 22, 2004

How do you see the pictures of the darkroom?

Jim Moore · Oct 22, 2004

jeffreys48 said:
How do you see the pictures of the darkroom?

I deleted them awhile ago.

Here they are again.

Jim

Jeffrey A. Steinberg · Oct 22, 2004

I see you have the splitgrade from Heiland. I just got one and am building my darkroom so I can't use it. How well do you like it?

Darkroom Move Almost Complete...

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