Dust in the darkroom!

[Chazzy]

Thanks Jerold

I'll change away from paper towels straight away

Martin

But don't forget the virtue that paper towels are disposable. If you wipe up a fixer spill, the fixer is gone and in the trash. If you use a cloth towel to mop up the spill and attempt to re-use it later, even if it has dried, you run the risk of spreading fixer dust and contaminating your hands. I'd prefer for spilled solutions to get wiped up with paper towels and thrown into the garbage. Ditto with drying hands which have gotten into the fixer, if that occurs.

 

[BetterSense]

I used a carpeted walk-in closet for my darkroom. I keep the door mostly shut all the time; I'd rather it wasn't carpeted but I can dry film in there with no problems. At walmart I saw several small room-sized HEPA filtration units for sale in the $60-$100 range. If it was in the budget I would buy one of those and leave it running in the darkroom all the time.

 

[Martin Aislabie]

But don't forget the virtue that paper towels are disposable. If you wipe up a fixer spill, the fixer is gone and in the trash. If you use a cloth towel to mop up the spill and attempt to re-use it later, even if it has dried, you run the risk of spreading fixer dust and contaminating your hands. I'd prefer for spilled solutions to get wiped up with paper towels and thrown into the garbage. Ditto with drying hands which have gotten into the fixer, if that occurs.

Chazzy, you are right of course

Paper towels still have a place in the darkroom, for quickly mopping up spills and then you just bin them

However, Jerolds’ point about using paper towels as dusters is very true, I tried it on a dark shiny work surface and surprised myself just how much stuff the paper towel shed as it collected up other debris

As for fingers in the fixer - I have to wash my hands very carefully if I ever do accidentally get fixer on my skin, as otherwise it leaches out onto subsequent prints, leaving inverse fingerprints in the shadow areas

Martin

 

[jeroldharter]

But don't forget the virtue that paper towels are disposable. If you wipe up a fixer spill, the fixer is gone and in the trash. If you use a cloth towel to mop up the spill and attempt to re-use it later, even if it has dried, you run the risk of spreading fixer dust and contaminating your hands. I'd prefer for spilled solutions to get wiped up with paper towels and thrown into the garbage. Ditto with drying hands which have gotten into the fixer, if that occurs.

Charles,

I use single tray processing and I must say I have never had a fixer spill. I use latex gloves if I process a batch of prints by interleaving them but my bare hands never touch the chemistry. I don't like paper towels at all in the darkroom but I think that the less "fuzzy" the surface the better if you use them.

I use these flour sack towels. They are cheap. You can buy a dozen or two. I go through many towels in a darkroom session and then wash them.

http://www.americanchairstore.com/floursacktowels.html