Today's lessons learned

It turned out to be a two-fer. I opened my darkroom this morning and immediately noticed humidity, something we don’t have much of here. I turned on the light and saw that the floor was flooded. I appears that I’d hadn’t fully turned off one of my water sources and the sink had overflowed. This is because I have a shut off valve on the sink drain because of the way I have it plumbed. (This is in a basement.) Luckily, most everything is off the floor but for a few items and I didn’t really lose anything other that some cardboard boxes. Their contents will dry out OK. At least all my darkroom towels came in handy and the floor got fully washed. I set a fan up and it should be back to normal later today.

The second lesson came when I looked at some test prints I’d made over the past couple days. They were lighter on the left than the right. I looked at the scanned negatives and they were fine. I pulled the enlarger apart (a Beseler 23C) and found that the bull had lost its internal coating. How long has this been an issue? Probably a awhile. I am (almost) ashamed to admit that I have let this go but I think that since the bulk of my work of recent has been abstract and alternative and much of it has required long exposures, the problem wasn’t that evident. I have an new bulb to replace it and ordered a 6-pack along with a heat absorbing glass (just because.)

Note to self: do those regular maintenance checks on equipment and be sure to turn off the water.

Here’s that bulb.

I few weeks ago I left just a trickle of hot water running in my darkroom sink. It didn't flood, but two days later when I went in the darkroom it was hot (high 80s F) and humid. Water condensed everywhere. Ugh! Tiny trickle, but when spread out on the sink bottom, it was an excellent humidifier.

Bad luck, VinceInMT. Just out of curiosity is there no way you can leave the shut-off valve open as a fail safe? You didn't say how long it was before you re-entered the darkroom but what might have happened if you'd gone on a 2 week vacation?

Thanks

pentaxuser

This sort of thing can easily happen, at the end of a printing run I tend to be pretty tired and error prone. A check sheet by the door might be handy to go through before you close the door.

That bulb burned out on one side. That suggests the socked is off-center. My Durst's socket position was adjustable because they knew some folks (like me) did point source enlarging...which made bulb position critical.

pentaxuser said:

Bad luck, VinceInMT. Just out of curiosity is there no way you can leave the shut-off valve open as a fail safe? You didn't say how long it was before you re-entered the darkroom but what might have happened if you'd gone on a 2 week vacation?

Thanks

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

It was about 10 hours before I re-entered the darkroom.

When I hooked up the drain, I tied the darkroom sink drain into the drain that runs under the concrete basement floor from the kitchen. The kitchen is above the darkroom. I‘ve had the problem with the kitchen flow coming up in the darkroom sink so hence the valve. Not exactly code but it it works. When I go away, I have shut off valves on the water lines that feed the darkroom. Those are across the hall in a utility room that has a floor drain. This has been my setup for almost 30 years and the first time I’ve had a problem.

Part of the problem is that the drain from the kitchen drops under the basement floor and has a long run to get to the main. It takes lots of water to flush anything all that way. Evidently the previous owner used to get it plugged up and poured lots of drain cleaner in the line. Not too long after I bought the place it clogged up and I had a plumber in to snake the line. He went in through the roof vent above the kitchen and when he hit the obstruction he withdrew the snake and it had mud on it. He said that I had a hole in the drain line. He was able to clear the clog but said I needed to find that bad section of pipe.

I measured the length of his snake to where it hit the clog and then figured out about which way the pipe likely ran and guessed that it was under where my, at the time, my darkroom wet side table was. I emptied the darkroom and rented a jackhammer. I tore out section of the basement floor and dug down to find the pipe. I found the problem, a 8-inch section of the cast iron pipe was eaten from the inside out, probably by lots of drain cleaner over time.

I replaced a section of the cast iron pipe with PVC using a couple of no-hub bands. BUT, in that section of pipe I added a sweep ell that stubbed up above the floor. I put a tee on that, with the horizontal branch going to a sink through a ball valve that I use as a shut off. The branch that sticks vertical got a clean out cap installed on it, something that has come in handy a few times. I backfilled, compacted, mixed concrete, and poured a patch on the floor.

That sink is unvented and, I think, to bring it up to code I need to install one of those vents like the ones used on kitchen islands that have a sink. It’s on my to do list.

Photography can demand a pretty wide skill set.

jtk said:

That bulb burned out on one side. That suggests the socked is off-center. My Durst's socket position was adjustable because they knew some folks (like me) did point source enlarging...which made bulb position critical.

Click to expand...

I check the mounting position. Thanks.

momus said:

This sort of thing can easily happen, at the end of a printing run I tend to be pretty tired and error prone. A check sheet by the door might be handy to go through before you close the door.

Click to expand...

Thanks. That’s a great idea. I just turned 70 and the ”senior moments” are becoming more regular.

Heck, I had a doozy the other day. I’ve been scanning all the film I’ve shot since 1973 plus all my dad’s slides. I’ve done around 16,000 images. The other day I scanned a roll of 120 that I’d developed and the images were reversed left to right on the preview. (I use an Epson V500 and Epson software.) I fiddled with the software a bunch and was really scratching my head until I realized “Oh, that’s right, emulsion up. Duh!” One would think that after all those images it would simply be part of my workflow. If I think about stuff like this I could get worried.

VinceInMT said:

Thanks. That’s a great idea. I just turned 70 and the ”senior moments” are becoming more regular. ....

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yeh, that's the problem i have with "notes to self"... i forget where i put them....

p.s. nice detective and handy work!

i hear you. I would like to get some of that stuff to improve my memory but when I get to the drugstore I can’t remember what it is called.

My worst one: mixed a gallon of Dektol from powder. Poured it in one of my empty distilled water jugs, similar to gallon-sized milk jugs. Didn't print for a couple weeks and came into the darkroom to find that Dektol can devour thin plastic, and if given enough time, it can eat several layers into linoleum flooring. Lesson learned...