My New Revolving Darkroom Door

[Kevin Caulfield]

I just snagged a revolving darkroom door here in Melbourne on the auction site for a very nice price. It will be a great solution for my new darkroom when we move in a couple of weeks. A search here on APUG showed a few references to revolving darkroom doors, but otherwise I know little about them. That should spell an end to the days of using tens of metres of gaffa tape every time I use the darkroom.

 

[dancqu]

If you've the room a baffled entry way
is most convenient. No doors. In and out
with no obstruction. Dan

 

[Nick Zentena]

If you have the room a double door setup. One at right angles to the other will give you light tight. Or just hanging a long heavy drape over the door. Revolving doors are great if you've got people coming and going.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

I have two boys under the age of two, and I'm sure they will be coming and going to see what I'm doing, so the revolving door is ideal.

 

[erikg]

Oh yeah, your boys will love it! These doors are big and heavy, but they take up less space than a double door set up would. Usually you would see them in gang darkrooms or at pro labs, but these days all of that pro stuff is becoming affordable, sometimes free! Enjoy your new darkroom!

 

[Mike Wilde]

Little ones coming and going? Some thoughts

I too am dad to a couple of young kids, now 4 and 7 - they were 1 and 4 when I first commissioned this (i think 7th or 9th depending on how you count them) darkroom. The rule in Dads darkroom is that they are welcome to come in when I am in there and they want to visit. They are not welcome when I am not there. In the early days I locked the door. Now they seem to not be interested unless I am in there doing something.

Do a google search on 'Mr. Yuck' the character created in the 60's befoe standard hazard labels were developed. I took a GIF of the Mr. Yuck icon, cloned them, and printed out a page of labels with this logo on them. I stick them on almost every bottle stored under the sink. My dry chemistry is stored on shelves above the sink, or in a cabinet beside the sink up high, which is presently out of their reach unless they were very determined.

Last weekend I was printing out some photos I took of my oldest son with his pals at school, for him to give out at the end of the school year (which for me happens today). They both were keen to see this happen, so I sat them on one end of the enlarger bench, and then would pick up a barely filled tray and hold it where they could see the image develop. My oldest one was giving the play by play to the younger one, and he described 'Now you put the paper in the water'. I let him dip his finger in the 'water' to taste, and he quickly agreed that even though it was clear it wasnt 'water'. We reviewed the Mr. Yuck concept, and how things are not always what they look like.

 

[ann]

we have this type of door at the school lab and on occasion we get a tour of boy scouts, or other types of groups of young people who want to see what a real darkroom looks like.

they all love that revolving door. In fact that is usually the high light of their trip.

 

[Flotsam]

The problem with those solutions is that you lose your private refuge from the outside World. I prefer a single door with a sign that says "DO NOT ENTER! KNOCK FIRST!". Then you can choose to let them in or send them away .

 

[jstraw]

My darkroom door locks from the inside. I don't care if no one knocks.

 

[George Losse]

I had a revolving darkroom door at one of my old jobs. It was great.

Funny thing was that most of my non photographic co-workers were afraid of it. They would stay outside and just yell through the door. They never did understand that they could enter the room without causing me a problem.

I would recommend if you can spare the floor space, it is nice to also have a regular door to enter the darkroom in addition to the revolving door. It helps with getting big things in and out of the darkroom.

 

[Jon King]

I would recommend if you can spare the floor space, it is nice to also have a regular door to enter the darkroom in addition to the revolving door. It helps with getting big things in and out of the darkroom.

I found one of these doors in an electronic surplus store, of all places, but the price was right

I keep it flush against the door casing but not fastened to it. That way I can move it if I need to get something big in or out. A bit of foam along the flange that would normally be screwed to the casing seems to keep the light out just fine.

 

[Bob Carnie]

The revolving door to my darkroom is the highlight of any childs visit to Elevator.
As well I have convinced many people that it is an elevator and takes me to the basement as well as the roof.
Barney my dog has gotten use to it and will bark outside when he wants to visit me in the darkroom.
They are great spacesavers and a very efficient way of moving from dark to light.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Thanks all for your comments. It sounds like a revolving door is "the duck's guts" as we say here in Oz. Mike, thanks for the "Mr Yuck" tip. I will follow that up. Neal, I agree that the door will make me lose my private refuge to some extent, but when the kids are asleep it doesn't really matter.

I've just visited the house (the tenants are still living there) and noticed that the door frame is marginally smaller than the door. I'd be grateful for any comments on how people have managed to fit revolving doors into the available door space. (We'll be doing building work anyway, so making the door space bigger will be not too much of an issue).

 

[Flotsam]

I used to work at a place with several busy, active darkrooms with revolving doors. If the door was closed to you, the etiquette was to bang the door a couple of times with an open hand to warn anyone who might be entering the door from the other side so they wouldn't be caught halfway in and get whacked as the door spun around. Of course, in a busy workplace, the banging and whipping the door around became almost a simultaneous motion. Remarkably, there were very few incidents of people getting caught by a spinning door while entering. There was a small problem when the company hired a deaf person which made the bang and spin technique even more chancy.

 

[Early Riser]

I use the 2 door system. Both of the doors are fire rated doors and as such come with thick rubberized seals around them. They are each essentially light, and air tight. This gives me the abililty to come and go as I please and to even leave the door open between my darkroom and archive/storage room
should I want to set up an area for cutting down paper or what have you.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Last night while I was busy feeding the six-month old, I heard the two-year-old crying. I called him but he didn't come, so I thought he'd gone into our bedroom and couldn't open the door to get out. I went to investigate, and as I walked past the yet-to-be-installed revolving darkroom door, I realised that's where the cries were coming from. He'd gone inside but couldn't get out. Thankfully the experience didn't traumatise him as he still loves playing with the door.

 

[DKT]

the revolving door to our darkroom is large enough for two people more or less--it connects three rooms together. two darkrooms and a studio. i used to work with a guy who sometimes would try to slip out early...one afternoon we were working in the studio and this guy tried to slip out, but he realized we were out there, and he couldn't sneak by--so he tried to wait it out by hiding in the revolving door, having entered it when we weren't around...he stayed in there for about a half hour, and we realized he was hiding in there, because it had gotten to be past his time to leave for the day...so my boss went over to an outside door and yelled out "see ya tomorrow!"--slammed the door and like clockwork the revolving door opens and this guy is standing there with his coat on & with his bag etc--staring out at us while we were all laughing....

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

The revolving doors are cool, and easy enough to get the hang of. The tricky ones are the pressure-sensitive double trap door types. The ones you step on the outside plate to open, step inside, the outer door closes, then the inner door opens, you step off, and the inner door closes. I got tangled up in one because I stepped in the wrong sequence, so it wouldn't re-open to let me back out, and it took someone inside the lab pushing a button somewhere to re-set the thing and release the inner door. It was quite embarassing, especially since I was there for a job interview about possibly working in the lab.