Two part darkroom

[Wayne]

I have a walk through closet that leads to my dry room. My dry room is probably 10 x 10 standing room (slanted ceiling, 2nd floor). My wet room opens only off the dry room, but its huge, the entire space above my 2 car garage. The only window in any of these rooms is at the far far end of the wet darkroom, and that's where my sink is. I don't bother putting paper in a safe or box. If its b&w there are safelights so I can see perfectly well. if its color I have little dabs of glow in the dark paint on various objects that gives me a sort of trail to follow. Its probably a 30 foot walk from enlarger to sink.

 

[MattKing]

It is very simple, quick and easy to walk 10 feet from one dark room to another to transport a print from enlarger to trays..
It is more relatively more inconvenient and relatively slow to put exposed prints in a paper safe, open and close a door from a darkroom into a lighted room and then open and close another door into another darkroom, then transfer the print from the paper safe to trays.
From time to time I'll expose paper in one room, put it into a developing tube, and then develop the paper in the tube in another, lighted room. That works quite well.

 

[albada]

You do not need to put your trays in a sink - just don't spill much! Seriously, I put my trays on an old piece of kitchen counter (Formica). After the fixer, I put them in a bucket of water and do the toner, wash etc. later and elsewhere. Works well for fiber; not so well for RC (too much wet time).

Ilford recommends a maximum of 15 minutes wet-time for their RC paper, so once it's in the dev, "you better keep a-movin and not stand still".
My wet area has no sink. Instead, I use Sterlite bins instead of trays. The high walls on those bins prevent splash-out.

 

[jamesaz]

I’ve worked in many custom printing labs that had color paper processing in areas separated from the print exposure areas but none I can recall did that for b/w. Probably because of volume and efficiency. That said, you do what you must.

 

[Sirius Glass]

At Kodak in the after hours darkrooms, one would expose the paper in the enlarger, box the paper, leave the room and got to another room with a special revolving door to then put the exposed paper in the Keronite machine. Then leave that room to around to the other side to pick up the processed dried print in another room.

The most expensive part a darkroom is the space and some of us are not able to have an all in one darkroom, so the the "I don't have the patience to shuttle paper around." attitude has no place in this thread.

 

[Pieter12]

My point is a 10x12 room with no plumbing makes a perfectly useable darkroom. Why the need to pack up and move paper around when it can all be done in the same room? Just use the second , smaller room with plumbing for washing. No need to get your panties in a wad over this.

 

[DonW]

Did it that way for years. Not a big deal.

 

[Tim Stapp]

My last darkroom was in an upstairs bedroom, no running water. I had a 5 gallon jug with spigot for water, with a 5 gallon pail for waste. Paper stored in light tight cupboard to the left of the enlargers (two Beseler 23CII set up for 135 and 6x7 respectively and a Beseler CB7 for 4x5. All of this was on the north wall. To the right was my "wet side" - a folding table that held the trays with the 5 gallon water jug on the right end.

I used the enlarger tables for loading film (Mamiya RB67 and 4x5 DDS. When developing film, the trays swapped places with the JOBO and it ran on the folding table. I had shims and spots marked on the table to place the JOBO so that everything was level. Finished prints were carried downstairs and washed in the old cast iron bath tub. Worked well until we had to sell the house and move into a rental. With skylights in every room, a darkroom has been out of reach.

Hopefully soon (looked at a house to purchase this evening-has possibilities), I'll be able to set up another darkroom and get the JOBO and enlargers out of storage. I've got a backlog of film to develop and proof print.