Minimizing smell

Jim_in_Kyiv · Jul 20, 2005

She's re-domesticated me reather well already, and I've even been known to wipe fixer off my hands with a towel and not on my jeans. These towel things - a great idea, and I think they'll stick around.

I'd love to put a fan in the room, and there might be one - we haven't chosen the place. The thing is we'll be renting, and getting a prospective landlord to allow holes in the bricks as well as the labrador and beagle could be a bit much, or worse, raise the rent.

I'll be in the UK in March looking for a very used Range Rover, so anybody thinking of parting with a good equipment hauler that happens to have a Paterson Orbiter tank in it as standard equipment, let me know.She's forgiving when I smell good and use towels.

Ronald Moravec · Jul 21, 2005

Give up the vinegar. User water rinse after film development or nothing at all w3hich is what i do. Prints can use water only if you change it often and cover the fix tray with clear plexiglass sheet and only take it off for adding or removing prints.

TF4 fix is alkaline so yuo don`t even want and acid stop and smell far less than acid fix.

This is really an easy problem.

dancqu · Jul 22, 2005

Ronald Moravec said:
This is really an easy problem.

I went a little farther in my first post this thread.
" ... is no problem at all."
I think sometimes that some are just looking for excuses
for not getting on with it. Dan

Jim_in_Kyiv · Jul 22, 2005

dancqu said:
I went a little farther in my first post this thread.
" ... is no problem at all."
I think sometimes that some are just looking for excuses
for not getting on with it. Dan

Dancqu, could you be a little more specific on the last sentence? If you mean that some people don't like experimenting with new chemistry or equipment - we haven't discussed my 'new' aged Leningrad 4 35mm enlarger, or the Svema developer that came with it - quite a ways from the Solar enlarger and Kodak I started on a continent away. They're not even in the same alphabet, actually.
Or did you mean not getting started at all? That would be a poor reading of my original post, which says that I'm already using the bathroom as a dark room.
Regardless, whether you meant me or anyone taking the time to learn about a specific, though overrated, problem with photo chemistry, the comment doesn't help with the overall very helpful and sometimes wonderfully tongue-in-cheek train of the thread. Please be clearer.
If I've gone over a line, I'm sure I'll be informed. As a business writer and editor by profession I'll come to fit the mold sooner rather than later. But I'd prefer some clarity when you write things like that in references to my posts.

dancqu · Jul 22, 2005

JiminKyiv said:
Dancqu, could you be a little more specific on the last sentence?
... did you mean not getting started at all? .... Please be clearer.

I and some others have made suggestions which will for all
practical purposes eliminate any problems with odors and fumes.
My approach is the most radical least conventional. Some more
testing is involved than in other odor and fume elimination
methods suggested. A hurdle in itself.

I'm merely suggesting that the odorless, fumeless darkroom
you will soon need is already within your grasp. What is your
next hurdle; where to put the enlarger or THE tray. That
last, a bit of tongue-in-cheek. Dan

MichaelBriggs · Jul 22, 2005

A darkroom should have ventilation for safety. Most bathrooms already have fans, either directly to the outside, or into an attic or equivalent space.

I second the suggestions for a citric acid stop bath. (The debate about "short stop" vs water has been going on for more than a century).

Lloyd Erlick has an excellent article on low odor fixers: http://www.heylloyd.com/technicl/plain.htm

Tom Hoskinson · Jul 22, 2005

MichaelBriggs said:
Lloyd Erlick has an excellent article on low odor fixers...[/url]

Or you could take a look in the Apug Chemical Recipes Section under Fixers.

dancqu · Jul 23, 2005

MichaelBriggs said:
I second the suggestions for a citric acid stop bath.

Does that go for those like myself who use neutral
to alkaline fixers?
FWIW, a fixer, sodium or ammonium, need not fume
nor have any odor. Dan

Tom Hoskinson · Jul 23, 2005

dancqu said:
Does that go for those like myself who use neutral
to alkaline fixers?
FWIW, a fixer, sodium or ammonium, need not fume
nor have any odor. Dan

I agree with Dan.

David · Jul 23, 2005

Count your blessings if those are the only offensive bathroom smells in your house.

Jim_in_Kyiv · Jul 23, 2005

I agree that a darkroom should be ventilated, as should a bathroom on general principles, but that's a seperate issue, and for that I'll have to rely on the construction of the place we rent.
Michael, I'm guessing you're in the States or somewhere else where building codes are, well, black and white. Even the crap, low cost construction job that comprised my house in Delaware was a miracle compared to most of what was built in the Soviet Union. I won't go into the horrors of the Krushchev-era housing I live next to, but the Brezhnev-era heap I'm in doesn't even have an electrical outlet in the bathroom. It's clean, nothing has fallen, but the ventilation is also, well, not always spot on. I could do a work around, but in less than three months I'm moving. The bride to be insists on new construction, for some reason.

I will certainly read everything available on the site about my fixer options as well as experiment with the great suggestions here. And send some money in the appropriate direction for providing this incredible resource!

mirrorslap · Jul 30, 2005

For films plain water works great!
During my first printing session in my new darkroom, I was using Kodak fixer; the room unfortunately has minimal ventilation. After two hours I felt like I had had a case of beer I was dizzy and had a headache from the fixer smell.
I have since switched to Arista Premium odorless fixer, and it is fantastic. Comes in liquid form, mix it up 1:9 for either film or paper. Problem solved; I can think of more fun ways to get that dizzy, headachy feeling!

Minimizing smell

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