Your favorite "Improvised" darkroom equipment

[jeffreyg]

Need an adjustable diffuser? Two pieces of 1/4 inch thick glass with some baby oil in between held under the enlarger lens. The amount of oil and rotating the pieces of glass over each other will alter the amount of diffusion. You can see it on a sheet of paper on the easel. Start with and keep a sharp negative. It can do wonders softening wrinkled or blemished skin. Best to smooth or tape the glass edges - blood doesn't usually help a print.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

 

[brass majestic]

I use lengths of foam water pipe insulating tubes for arm rests on the front edge of my sink.
Also a dish drainer to elevate my print tray washer w/siphon and some strips of 1x2 treated wood screwed together with stainless steel screws to elevate the trays off the sink bottom.

 

[jp80874]

I bought a plastic garment bag (similar to this http://www.stacksandstacks.com/suit-bag-vinyl-bag-with-sturdy-zipper?id=175&sku=20253 ), added extra hooks inside, to use as a film dryer. Keeps dust out nicely.

A variation of this hanging film drier is the Rolling Wardrobe Closet and Canvas Cover Dead Link Removed
This is one of many sources. Mine came from Bed Bath & Beyond, but I don’t see one currently on their site.

The canvas keeps the dust out while letting the moisture evaporate. Roll the portable closet into the darkroom to load as the film comes out of the Jobo in the sink. OfficeMax small binder clips hold the film to hangers. Paper towels on the floor of the closet gather any drips. The closet is presently used for anything from roll film up through 8x10 and 7x17 sheet film. When loaded roll the closet out of the darkroom and let it do its job near the furnace/air conditioner depending on the season. When the film is dry it is removed to more archival storage boxes from Hollinger.

John Powers

 

[ic-racer]

I have often dreamt a lens turret QUOTE]

Most useful only for large format lenses. The smaller lenses don't have enough room to both spin and focus closely. Also, the turrets can be difficult to align for each lens. The longer lenses don't care, but the smaller lenses need crucial alignment.

Practical examples: Omega 4x5 turret wont' focus with the 50mm or smaller and the Durst 8x10 turret won't focus with the 80mm or smaller

So, my Omega turret is loaded with 80mm, 105mm and 150mm and the Durst turret is loaded with 150mm and 210mm

 

[MattKing]

My Omega 4x5 turret does focus with a 50mm on a D6 (very flexible bellows system) but some 50mm lenses are incompatible.

Otherwise I would be severely tempted by the 50mm, 80mm, 105mm Rodagon set currently in the APUG classifieds.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

My Omega 4x5 turret does focus with a 50mm on a D6 (very flexible bellows system) but some 50mm lenses are incompatible.

I'm with Matt on this.

My Omega D5XL is equipped with the 3-lens turret currently mounting three Schneider Componon-S lenses, the 50/2.8, 100/5.6, and 150/5.6. I took the trouble to period-match the trio. They are all manufactured in the early 80s, since that's the age of my earliest purchased lens - the 50.

Both the 100 and 150 are mounted using extended oval plates. But the 50 is mounted with a standard flat oval plate. The bellows must be racked all the way up and locked when using it. But doing so does leave me with a little wiggle room to spare, meaning the lens focuses easily with a little overshoot room still available.

I have also read that not all 50mm enlarging lenses will work using the D-series turret. The issue is getting the lens close enough to the negative stage. And a rotating turret usually precludes the use of a recessed mounting plate. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this last part.

Ken

 

[MattKing]

Ken:

The problem with some of the 50mm lenses is that they stick out too much at the back, so when the bellows is racked up, the lens body itself stops the turret from rotating.

Same problem with recessed lens plates - they move the lens back so it interferes physically with the operation of the turret.

If the lens extends far enough back, it can even make it impossible to slide the turret assembly into place.

 

[holmburgers]

I bought a tiny stainless steel bar sink for my first darkroom. But when I got it home, I couldn't figure out how to mount/support it. Lo and behold, an antique dinner chair with the seat removed (and awaiting a never-to-come repair) happened to hold it perfectly! So, for a month or so I had a sink in an old woooden chair, and boy did it look awesome.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

[This post is a follow-up to (there was a url link here which no longer exists) earlier in this thread. -Ken]

I'd love to see a picture, having some trouble visualizing all the details.

Well I never did find someone with a digital imaging thingie. I don't have one. The wife doesn't either - she hates the look of digital pictures. She has a cell phone with a 2-Mp, but no memory card to get the images out. My son doesn't own one. The neighbor kid did, but it broke after only moderate use.

So I did the next best thing. I plopped the contraption upside down onto the scanner glass and taped some white paper sheets around it for a non-black background. Not ideal, but there it is.

The attached image is looking down into the tank. Water passes through the right-hand wall. Once inside there is a right-angle nylon fitting that points straight down to another straight fitting which passes through the bottom. The two fittings are vertically connected by a small, flexible tube, same as the hose tubing.

There is a watertight void beneath the visible tank bottom that was created when I epoxied an additional plastic sheet over the original outside recessed tank bottom underneath.

The water accumulates in that void beneath the visible bottom in this image, then wells up through the (blurred) holes you can see drilled in the bottom. (They're really not oval, just a scanner artifact.)

The water then rises between each film sheet held in those curved guides visible inside the upper and lower interior walls and spills out over the top. The effect is sort of like a mini-archival print washer, but without a siphon or a drain.

Hope this helps visualize things.

Ken

 

[Alistair Wait]

Thanks to ic-racer, MattKing, and Ken Nadvornick for your thoughts (above).

This is really just a pipe dream, and I have a lot of fun and learning working these things out. Just for interest sake, here is a screenshot of the plans I found in Popular Science

I have few enlargers and my favourite is a Super Chromega D with the dichroic lamphouse.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Ken:

The problem with some of the 50mm lenses is that they stick out too much at the back, so when the bellows is racked up, the lens body itself stops the turret from rotating.

Same problem with recessed lens plates - they move the lens back so it interferes physically with the operation of the turret.

If the lens extends far enough back, it can even make it impossible to slide the turret assembly into place.

Oh yeah! Now I remember the problem. I had another off-brand 50mm lens that resulted in exactly the behavior you describe. An extended plate pulled it too far away from the negative, and a flat plate made the rear element housing protrude too high up into the turret. Fortunately the Schneider 50/2.8 does not have this issue.

Thanks, Matt!

Ken

 

[ic-racer]

Thanks guys for the D5 turret info with the 50. The D5500 turret is a little different, but, like the D5 turret, there may indeed be some 50s that will focus and spin as not all 50mm lenses have the same flange focal length.

 

[MattKing]

Thanks guys for the D5 turret info with the 50. The D5500 turret is a little different, but, like the D5 turret, there may indeed be some 50s that will focus and spin as not all 50mm lenses have the same flange focal length.

Here's KHB's lens mount reference for the D5500, which indicates which lenses need which plates for which turret (and which lenses don't work with the turrets).

At first I thought this was a generic list, but I now see that it is specific to the D5500.

http://www.khbphotografix.com/omega/LensMountD5500.htm

 

[anon12345]

Here's a simple solution that I've continued to use. It's two 20 inch long dowels stuck into a stick and mounted on the wall. The clips are plastic clothespins (the modern-day type). I've used it to dry roll-film, sheet-film and rc prints. I've dried several larger prints by attaching them to two clips, one on each dowel.

 

[24x30]

for paper sizes bigger than 30x40 cm² trays are more cost-intensive. I'll buy storage boxes at a big 'swedish furniture store'. For example they sell a bed storage box which can be used for prints up to 60x70 cm²:

It costs less than 10€. It has a flat bottom and is easy to clean. It can be used with less than 2 litres of chemicals. I use it with some buckets in a single tray process.

rudi

 

[Anscojohn]

At a kitchen supply store I bought a "gravity-powered-silicon-based-fixed-interval timing device for timing print development. Also known as an hourglass egg timer. Be sure to get one with sand that shows up well under safe light.

 

[wclark5179]

I use a coat hanger to dry my film. Took it apart then put on drying clips (however I also use a hanger that already has clips installed for hanging pants) put it back together. Take the loop on top, turn it sideways, then I hang it on the shower curtain rod, load it with wet film and let the film dry.

 

[michaelbsc]

At a kitchen supply store I bought a "gravity-powered-silicon-based-fixed-interval timing device for timing print development. Also known as an hourglass egg timer. Be sure to get one with sand that shows up well under safe light.

The kids won't get it. Call it a quartz crystal fixed interval timer.

 

[Anscojohn]

The kids won't get it. Call it a quartz crystal fixed interval timer.

*************

 

[Vaughn]

FWIW...we have seven D5XL's (condenser heads) with the turrets. In 50mm, we use Nikkors, Schneiders and Rodenstocks (all f2.8) -- and a wide variety of ages. These three lenses work for us -- sometimes I have to use a second mounting plate behind the lens to allow the turret to rotate freely. Off the top of my head, I don't remember which brand which needed the spacer. Still focuses fine, but one does have to make sure the bellows are all the way up. I'll check tomorrow if the classes are not busy in the darkroom.

The other spots have 80mm and 135mm lenses...just about all Nikkors (f5.6)

Vaughn, Nikkors or Nikons? News at 11