I always sandwich my prints between sheets of archival mount board in the press. Wipe the sheets clean every session--no spots, no indents.
Mount board? Doesn't that drastically increase the needed "dwell" time? I use just plain acid-free art paper, and the instructions for my glue sheets says they require at least two minutes under pressure in the press.
Well, I basically finished this new darkroom (my 6th) about five years ago but I've been improving and refining it ever since. It's located in a space formerly a coal room in my 80 year old house. I've had larger darkrooms in the past when I was a working commercial photographer but now I'm just a hobbyist and its 10' x 13' footprint is cozy and fine with me. For ventilation I installed a surplus industrial clean-room filter/blower (.3 micron) that I found online for $105 w/shipping and vent it out through louvers I installed over the eight-foot sink. It keeps the room from feeling like a swamp and also keeps it immaculately clean. I have been using Jobo tanks and reels for film for decades but always regretted that I couldn't dry the film on the reels like I could with SS wire reels without getting spots and streaks. From another home improvement project I had a leftover large and powerful inline duct booster fan and I found that a large ShopVac vacuum filter fit perfectly tight over the intake end and the output was still powerful. A dollar store plastic pitcher fit nicely over the output end and with a hole cut in the bottom just slightly smaller than the reels it would easily hold 5-6 35mm size Jobo reels. It works marvelously well. I give the film on the reels a last one-minute bath in distilled water and half-strength Photo Flo after washing, shake the excess off vigorously, put them and the pitcher under the blower and it just blasts the wet off them and dries the film in a jiffy. So far, my finished negatives have been virtually dust and spot free. I splurged on an Intellifaucet and it works brilliantly - a huge time and labor-saving device that I wish I had back in my working days. A magnetic automatic stirring motor and a hands-free bottle washer and valve are two other really handy gadgets I found at a local home-brewer supply store.
I really like the speakers, do you need to turn them off when exposing?
The darkroom is finally complete. Almost 15 years in waiting, 6 months in progress. Walls are a double layer of black landscape plastic hanging from ceiling joists or stapled to a stud wall. At my age, I want this to be sort of permanently temporary, so that when I'm gone, they can just tear it down in no time. I decided to skip the plumbing and use 5-gallon buckets instead. Door is a 3-layer light maze. All the equipment and furniture was FREE.
Old school enlarger with drop table, New school drop tableView attachment 373426View attachment 373427
And if you're in the mood for a shower you're all set
The dog to fetch items dropped in the dark?Old school enlarger with drop table, New school drop tableView attachment 373426View attachment 373427
The dog to fetch items dropped in the dark?
She protects me and Anam when we are printing,
Well done.
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