(makeshift) Safelight

Maybe you guys can help.
I am teaching a first run class on alternative process printing (and the chemistry behind it). The second half of the semester, I am intending on cycling the students through a darkroom. I'm putting the finishing touches on it. The stumbling block is the safelight. It will take physical plant a little while to get the lights installed. In the meantime as a makeshift light, I'd like to try a light bulb in a pole lamp. Is that possible? (or stupid?) What kind of bulb do I need? Where can I get one? Or is there a better way to get a light in there?

If you're doing alt printing, you can stick a couple of bug lights on lamps. That's what i do in my own darkroom, and when I teach alt printing at school (cyanotypes, gum bi-chromate, kallitype). I use the fluorescent bug lights found at any hardware store.

Andrew O'Neill said:

If you're doing alt printing, you can stick a couple of bug lights on lamps. That's what i do in my own darkroom, and when I teach alt printing at school (cyanotypes, gum bi-chromate, kallitype). I use the fluorescent bug lights found at any hardware store.

Click to expand...

The alt printing, I'm good on. (lightboxes! Last year, it rained every time we had lab - for several weeks). It's the dark room that I need help with. I've heard so many different things about safelights, I don't know whom to believe!

Greg Davis said:

You can get a Kodak bullet safelight off eBay pretty cheap. They screw into a regular socket, the. You add a 25 watt bulb and an OC filter. If the light is far enough away from anything (like 12 feet from the sink and enlargers, a red led lightbulb from Lowe’s may work.

I have two videos on this subject, how to test a safelight, and what works as a safelight.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I'll take a look at the videos tomorrow (when I won't wake anyone)

Thomas sodium vapor safelight. New filters are available from Freestyle. Before LED streetlights, a lot if not most (still are) low pressure sodium vapor lamps . Produces a narrow emission spectrum, humans see very well. Black and white paper is practically blind to it. Thomas Duplex safelight has a low pressure sodium vapor lamp. You can buy filters for black and white paper and color paper.

There's always used examples on Ebay. The filters are often 30 years old and can need replacement . The lamp bulb is commonly available on the Internet for 30 to 40 dollars .

Read about these things. They are amazing.

There's a lot of people using red leds, as long as you don't get to close? I would rather have a real safelight. Nothing more safe and bright as a sodium vapor safelight.

Buy a socket with a built in switch from the hardware store. Mount it in a metal coffee can. Put a 15W red bug light in the socket. Paint the coffee can plastic cover red.

I have used it for forty years in my darkroom. Works great.

mshchem said:

Thomas sodium vapor safelight. New filters are available from Freestyle. Before LED streetlights, a lot if not most (still are) low pressure sodium vapor lamps . Produces a narrow emission spectrum, humans see very well. Black and white paper is practically blind to it. Thomas Duplex safelight has a low pressure sodium vapor lamp. You can buy filters for black and white paper and color paper.

There's always used examples on Ebay. The filters are often 30 years old and can need replacement . The lamp bulb is commonly available on the Internet for 30 to 40 dollars .

Read about these things. They are amazing.

There's a lot of people using red leds, as long as you don't get to close? I would rather have a real safelight. Nothing more safe and bright as a sodium vapor safelight.

Click to expand...

Thomas safelights are great - unless you need to turn your safelights off and on. Thomas safelights should be on continuously.
If you use an analyzer that needs the safelight to be off, or you do prints when it is hard to see the image while dodging and burning if the safelight is on, then you need some method to block the light from the Thomas.
Thomas safelights are superb in darkrooms where the developing area is separate from the exposing area.

Just need an ordinary socket and one of these:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/15768-REG/Delta_35010_Brightlab_Universal_Red_Jumbo.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/15766-REG/Delta_35110_Brightlab_Universal_Red_Junior.html
(also in amber, check if OK with your alt process, more comfortable vision in the lab)
And no need to wait for physical plant.

MattKing said:

Thomas safelights are great - unless you need to turn your safelights off and on. Thomas safelights should be on continuously.
If you use an analyzer that needs the safelight to be off, or you do prints when it is hard to see the image while dodging and burning if the safelight is on, then you need some method to block the light from the Thomas.
Thomas safelights are superb in darkrooms where the developing area is separate from the exposing area.

Click to expand...

True. These things take 5 to 10 minutes to get the tube hot enough for the "vapor". They are so bright that it can be impossible to see your easel.
Also you seem to be after a temporary solution. Red LED bulbs might be a cheap fast solution.

I one time used a gooseneck with red tissue paper tapes over the front. It did the trick...

I once bought a 20 watt red party bulb and spray painted the top half black, in order to diffuse the light.

It’s probably not a correct safelight. I wouldn’t use it for printing but it works for stuff like tintypes just fine.

There are a number of options. Red LEDs are readily available. My darkroom has red LED strip-lighting covered with lithographers red tape (ruby lith). That would be an easy solution for you (you could likely walk over to the graphics dept. on campus and get the tape from them. If not you can get it cheap on Amazon or the like). There are also many red LED bulbs you can use that screw into a regular light socket (E6 base). There are a lot of threads here about people using them, so search a bit. Even a red LED that's not safe by itself can be made safe by filtration. LEDs would be my first recommendation for your application.

There are also lots of used safelights with various filters on eBay and elsewhere. I have Kodak 10x12-inch safelights in my darkroom too, as well as two Kodak bullet safelights. I have series 1 (red) 1A (lighter red) and OC (amber) filters for all of them. The whole lot set me back less than $100. That would be another choice for you. Paterson 5x7 safelights with OC filters are rather plentiful used.

Caveat: there are lots of Kodak filters out there for sale that were made for special applications and don't work all that well for a general (or alt-process) darkroom. Get the Kodak tech sheet on safelights and safelight testing (Google for the pdf, it's easy to find) or read the Wikipedia article to get an overview of the numbers, colors and applications. You need to determine what safelight filtration (color) you need and go from there. Red works for anything an amber OC safelight will work for, but not vice-versa. I have red safelighting in my darkroom because some of the papers I use fog pretty quickly with OC filtration.

A word about the Thomas sodium-vapor safelights. They are big and can be noisy. They are also very bright, which can overwhelm a small darkroom and they can fog paper if you don't adjust the vanes. the filters often need replacing and they are a bit expensive. They need to warm up a while before they reach maximum brightness and be on all the time. While they may be ideal for many applications, I found them too bright, clumsy and inconvenient for my needs (I like to turn my safelights off for testing, etc. every now and then).

Best,

Doremus

I have been using these and they work great.


https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...equivalent-led-globe-bulb-27-lumens/440/1477/

https://www.amazon.com/Woods-Clamp-...716746&sr=8-15&keywords=adjustable+shop+light

There's lots of cheapo options. You could make safelight testing part of the course and try out different ideas.

John51 said:

There's lots of cheapo options. You could make safelight testing part of the course and try out different ideas.

Click to expand...

This is a really good idea!

www.encapsulite.com

They make sheets of plastic that are wrapped around a common florescent(sp?) tube. This is then slipped into a clear plastic sleeve and provided caps go on the ends. The whole shebang fits in the fixture. I use a single 48" bulb in a double tube fixture but they do smaller too. Contact them for questions. Can't remember $ and I don't know your budget. I've not seen any issues with Ilford MG FB paper. The filter material in my case is orange-ish. That's OC isn't it?

Best

This is the safelight I have - https://www.freestylephoto.biz/12185-Premier-Safelight-5x7-Red
I have two in my 10' by 15' ish darkroom. The bulb is an ordinary bulb behind a red filter (I use lith film occasionally so use the red instead of OC) and you can get the filter gels separately. This one is only $50, but you could get the filter and make something for less. I don't have a clue where it is right now, but I think I still have leftover red filter around here somewhere 'cause I started with OC and got a sheet of the red and cut it to fit. If I find it soon, I'll post back.

I used the yellow bug lights as a teenager back in the 70's. Although they tend to fog the paper. I believe they were 60 watt bulbs and just too bright probably. Knowing what I know now, using the same bulb with a diode to cut the voltage in half to DC would probably work fine. Or maybe a dimmer switch.