Darkroom sink - material suggestions?

[Kimberly Anderson]

Hey folks,

I started this thread in the Darkroom section, and most of my questions are dealing with metal vs. wood/plastic/ABS, so I'll re-ask it here.

Any suggestions for a primarily non-silver darkroom sink? I have the wits and the tools needed to make a wooden sink, I could paint it, Rhinoline it, fiberglass it, etc., OR I am also familar with metal fabrication and what it would take to make a SS sink.

Any thoughts on materials? I know that the Kallitypes don't like metal contamination, but really the only thing I'm doing in the sink is the developing, and that is in trays anyway...so does it really matter?

I figured at least one non-silver printer here would have suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[Dave Wooten]

At Photographer's Formulary, I was really impressed at the sinks built by Bud, I think he had them "Rhinolited" they must be about 4 feet wide and maybe 12 plus long....they seemed very durable and a good suggestion for a large commercial set up etc....If you need a small sink fiberglass is ok, I have used it in the past.

 

[Kimberly Anderson]

One of the interesting things I learned about Rhinolining, is that it is made out of 'food-grade' plastic. That means it is non-porous and will not absorb anything to contaminate it. None of the other spray-on bedliners can make that claim.

When I was building my chuck-wagon trailer I had portions of it Rhinolined so that it would pass inspection by the health inspector for my food handlers license.

If Bud is making wooden sinks and having them Rhinolined I think I know the direction I'm headed.

Now for the dimensions...

 

[Sean]

I built mine out of wood, then primed it with yacht primer, and painted it with yacht paint. It's been great so far, yacht paint is pretty tough stuff..

 

[jp80874]

Besides their remarkable ability to withstand direct and reflected sunlight (hopefully not a big problem here) many yacht paints have an anti mildew component that works quite well. Mention of this will be on the label. The vendors are quite proud of it and charge accordingly. The anti mildew feature can make life on the wet side of the darkroom much cleaner and more tolerable. I do hate black stains on my silver or alt prints. I’ve also used this type of paint on other darkroom furniture where spills happen sooner or later.

John Powers
Sixty some years maintaining old boats.

 

[donbga]

Michael,

Any suggestions for a primarily non-silver darkroom sink? I have the wits and the tools needed to make a wooden sink, I could paint it, Rhinoline it, fiberglass it, etc., OR I am also familar with metal fabrication and what it would take to make a SS sink.

!

What I've done that has worked very well for years is after constructing your wooden sink paint the interior with an elastomeric coating. This a latex water based product which is manufactured for coating metal roofing. 1 gallon will coat a lot of square feet. I painted 8 or 9 thin coats of this product on the sink allowing the coating to dry between each coat.

After you have finished coating with the elastometric coating you will need to coat the entire painted surface with a couple of coats of polyurethane. The poly will provide a hardened protective coat that prevents the latex coating from being abraded or gouged.

This coating will be water proof and chemical resistant.

Don Bryant