Since I don't seem to have anything better to do in the middle of my constantly-unstable life, I've decided that unpacking, rebuilding and improving my very cobbled-together darkroom after a cross-country move is just the kind of thing to do on Day 1 of 2025. This is going to be a fun and challenging project, because not only will this new darkroom be equally cobbled-together, but it'll be assembled in a space that only has 50% of the area of my previous darkroom, but which also has 2873% more carpet on the floors.
Thus, the first order of business is to install a large sink...and when I say "install" I actually mean "build in the garage, and then gingerly shove into place in a temporary fashion with the hopes that it doesn't move around too much, because mobility isn't really a quality that you look for in a large sink." Also, when I say "sink" I actually mean "a rather sizable but shallow vessel-like-object which is constructed of materials that we don't normally use for sinks...and which actually won't feature either a water supply or a drain of any sort, mostly on account of the carpet that I mentioned two sentences back." Lastly, I should also mention that in this context, "large" actually means "slightly less than 30" by 60, which isn't really big enough to be useful as a dedicated darkroom sink, even if it did feature a water supply and/or drain, which - again - it doesn't."
So, yeah, I'm actually building an oversized tray...but "darkroom sink" sounds infinitely better than "oversized tray" so I'm going to keep calling it a sink while secretly admitting that I'm happy about it being a tray, because trays sound like they can be made from stuff that's much less expensive than sinks.
Pictured: Like, you know, cabinet-grade birch.
Normally, using higher-tier materials for things likeoversized trays sinks isn't really a good expenditure of money...but since this sheet was actually several dollars less expensive and a lot flatter than the generic A-C plywood at the local lumberyard, I decided to use it. It's an import - probably from southeast Asia, as we now can't get Baltic birch on account of the late unpleasantness - but it's very low-void and the plies look good, so I feel good about spending $60 on it. I had them rough-cut it to 59", because that's about as long as this tray sink can possibly be.
So, here's the plan: cut a floor, four sides and three bottom braces, glue all of that together, fillet the inside corners, possibly throw a lightweight layer of fiberglass over the fillets - more on that in a few - and then slap some kind of coating/finish over the entire thing before sitting it on a base and hoping that it all works like I'm planning and doesn't look like it was built by an absolute muppet. No bets on any of that coming true.
Design-wise, it's pretty simple: the sides are about 5" tall, which will give me about 3.5" of interior depth once it's all said and done. No backsplash; I want to leave the option for making a drop-on countertop/work surface to cover the entire sink when it's not in use, and that's more difficult if a backsplash is involved...and I'm allergic to difficulty. Incidentally, that allergy is also why the fiberglassed-over fillets on the interior are currently optional: if I do my job correctly when I connect the sides to the floor, the fillets themselves will be more than strong enough to reinforce that joint...so the fiberglass could be a pointless expense and weight. This being said; I'll already have the resin for it because I'm going to roll a layer or two over the entire surface of the plywood as a primer/encapsulation, so it wouldn't be much work to just throw a single piece of tape across all of the fillets while I'm at it, so I may do that anyway. We'll see.
Finish-wise: I'll probably do something that will hide all of my resin-based crimes without requiring an absurd degree of work, and that laziness is pointing me towards textured epoxy or a bedliner material. For a dry sink, either would be fine, but I have more experience with misusing bedliner than I do with correctly applying epoxy paints, so that former method is currently in the lead. I'll have to make a decision soon, though, because the choice of finish may well dictate the choice of resin, and I need to go ahead and buy resin if I want to get this finished in the next few weeks.
Anyways, those two pictures are about as far as I've gotten: a roughly-cut piece of 3/4-ish" birch in the corner of the garage. I figured that it would be fun to document the build so that everyone can follow along with my ineptitude and learn how to not do this at my literal expense. To that end, my next steps are to generate some final plans and a cut list and to make sure that I have a panel blade for my saw...and that is a phrase that here means "do exactly none of those things, and instead, go look at an enlarger that's for sale just a few minutes down the road, because evidently I need another one."
I make such good decisions; what could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned;you I just might learn something.
Thus, the first order of business is to install a large sink...and when I say "install" I actually mean "build in the garage, and then gingerly shove into place in a temporary fashion with the hopes that it doesn't move around too much, because mobility isn't really a quality that you look for in a large sink." Also, when I say "sink" I actually mean "a rather sizable but shallow vessel-like-object which is constructed of materials that we don't normally use for sinks...and which actually won't feature either a water supply or a drain of any sort, mostly on account of the carpet that I mentioned two sentences back." Lastly, I should also mention that in this context, "large" actually means "slightly less than 30" by 60, which isn't really big enough to be useful as a dedicated darkroom sink, even if it did feature a water supply and/or drain, which - again - it doesn't."
So, yeah, I'm actually building an oversized tray...but "darkroom sink" sounds infinitely better than "oversized tray" so I'm going to keep calling it a sink while secretly admitting that I'm happy about it being a tray, because trays sound like they can be made from stuff that's much less expensive than sinks.
Pictured: Like, you know, cabinet-grade birch.
Normally, using higher-tier materials for things like
So, here's the plan: cut a floor, four sides and three bottom braces, glue all of that together, fillet the inside corners, possibly throw a lightweight layer of fiberglass over the fillets - more on that in a few - and then slap some kind of coating/finish over the entire thing before sitting it on a base and hoping that it all works like I'm planning and doesn't look like it was built by an absolute muppet. No bets on any of that coming true.
Design-wise, it's pretty simple: the sides are about 5" tall, which will give me about 3.5" of interior depth once it's all said and done. No backsplash; I want to leave the option for making a drop-on countertop/work surface to cover the entire sink when it's not in use, and that's more difficult if a backsplash is involved...and I'm allergic to difficulty. Incidentally, that allergy is also why the fiberglassed-over fillets on the interior are currently optional: if I do my job correctly when I connect the sides to the floor, the fillets themselves will be more than strong enough to reinforce that joint...so the fiberglass could be a pointless expense and weight. This being said; I'll already have the resin for it because I'm going to roll a layer or two over the entire surface of the plywood as a primer/encapsulation, so it wouldn't be much work to just throw a single piece of tape across all of the fillets while I'm at it, so I may do that anyway. We'll see.
Finish-wise: I'll probably do something that will hide all of my resin-based crimes without requiring an absurd degree of work, and that laziness is pointing me towards textured epoxy or a bedliner material. For a dry sink, either would be fine, but I have more experience with misusing bedliner than I do with correctly applying epoxy paints, so that former method is currently in the lead. I'll have to make a decision soon, though, because the choice of finish may well dictate the choice of resin, and I need to go ahead and buy resin if I want to get this finished in the next few weeks.
Anyways, those two pictures are about as far as I've gotten: a roughly-cut piece of 3/4-ish" birch in the corner of the garage. I figured that it would be fun to document the build so that everyone can follow along with my ineptitude and learn how to not do this at my literal expense. To that end, my next steps are to generate some final plans and a cut list and to make sure that I have a panel blade for my saw...and that is a phrase that here means "do exactly none of those things, and instead, go look at an enlarger that's for sale just a few minutes down the road, because evidently I need another one."
I make such good decisions; what could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned;
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