Cabinets (finally)

I am thrilled to report that the drought of activity is broken. I made significant progress over the weekend, as witnessed by the completion and installation of the enlarger cabinets.

There are two Beseler 4x5s – one is on the adjustable stand in the center. I built two cabinets to flank the enlarger stand. The larger of the cabinets on the right holds the second enlarger. Underneath is storage for easels and possibly the print drying racks – I haven’t fully settled on that yet. The cabinet on the left will be a general work area and misc. storage.

Equipment list

I added an equipment page (link to the right) for those who care about such things. 

Enjoy.

OK, I promise to work harder ...

I hate blogs that get started and then just stop.  Usually the novelty wears off and the blogger has lost interest.  I assure you that the novelty wearing off is not the problem here.  And, I apologize for the lack of progress.

I have just returned from two weeks out of town.  Prior to that, it was record heat that kept me from working, coupled with the unexpected eye surgery back in June before that.

I am fully recovered from the eye thing, I'm back in town, and it's hot, but not "as hot".  Plus, it is at least mid-September and the actual hotness will break soon.  It always does.  So, onward and upward once I get settled back in from being gone for a while. 

I am inspired.  One thing vacations are good for is getting one's batteries recharged.  Among other things, we visited a number of photography and art venues and I got an idea for a new direction in my own photography.  This makes me even more anxious about getting my own darkroom back up - as I will need it!

Some progress

It continues to be so hot as to make working in the shop oppressive!  In spite of this - progress, however slow and invisible to the outsider, continues on.  The track saw arrived and met expectations.  Very pleased with the tool.  Material for the cabinets was procured.  Other jigs and devices for making the cabinets and other things have been completed, as well as the final design drawings.

And then there is all the other things that demand my time.  The rest of the house can only be ignored so long and chores have caught up with me.  This past week saw an electrician, a plumber, and the sprinkler repairman all visit.  But, those things are fixed!

And just this Friday I had a complete physical.  Seems I'm pretty healthy for my age.

I wish this would go faster, but apparently life is what happens when you make other plans.

Cabinet meeting

There are two major, “construction” things left: the water supply line to the building and fabricating the cabinets for the enlargers and the work area – the dry side.

There are still dozens (100’s ?) of small things, but that’s the last two major items. It is too hot to work outside on the water line, and I need to do some more design work on the cabinets. So, this past week I’ve been piddling around with some of the small things: where to put safelights and timers, the tray storage, chemical storage, etc. More shelves? Yes. Where? Good question.

I finally came to the realization that many of these small decisions are based, at least partly, on the cabinets. Not placement, so much, as execution. Without the cabinets in place, I can think about a lot of things, but I can’t really do them. Without the cabinets to put things in and on, I still have all these boxes sitting around, and they alter my visualization of everything else.

So: time to build the cabinets - then I can see everything! Once I put all the items in the cabinets that fit into them, I will know what I have left over that needs to go on shelves, under sinks, and other odd places. Trust me, it has to be done this way.

The cabinets are going to be pretty basic. I elected to build them myself since I don’t want doors, but rather prefer them to be open. They’ll be made out of white melamine with shelves and sliding drawers as needed. I guess they could also be considered shelves as much as cabinets. Two will serve as the dry side and will have an enlarger or two on them. The third will be in one corner and serve as a work table for miscellaneous tasks and hold the print drying racks. One of the dry side shelvinets will have purpose-built storage for my collection of enlarging easels. And so on.

Today (through the miracle of the world wide web) I ordered a track saw*, which will aid in the making of the cabinets. I had been considering upgrading my table saw for a while, but when I researched the track saws, I came to the conclusion that my present table saw will suffice, and the track saw will make cutting out sheet stock much more accurate and safer! Safer is good.

* http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-the-Track-Saw&id=1799306

Drained

Finished the plumbing installation in the darkroom proper.  Another minor milestone, of sorts.  One must take the small victories when they present themselves, after all.

I had given a lot of prior thought to how to do the plumbing, then as I was into it, had multiple second thoughts about it all. The overriding concept was to have everything exposed, both for maintenance and potential future changes. At times over the past few days, I wished I had done proper in-wall design, but I did not, so “oh, well”.

I had planned from the beginning to have the two sinks. (see the floor plan in the Feb. 28th post) The water supply lines come out of the wall near the corner and to the left of the wet side. This location was dictated by where the lines come up from the lower floor. Once out of the wall, they move laterally along the wet side to supply both sinks.

The shorter, 4’ sink on the right has three faucets built in. The 8’ sink has no built in faucets. In the old darkroom, the long sink had 3 faucets mounted above it on the wall. I could still do this, but with the addition of the 4’ temp control sink (not present in the old darkroom) multiple faucets on the 8’ are not necessary. I have gone back and forth about even mounting a faucet on the 8’ and at this point have not, but there are stub-outs in the water line directly under the sink and I can add one at a later date. In the meantime, I plan on just having a long enough hose from one of the 3 faucets in the other sink. The longer sink is for print trays. The short sink, with it’s temperature control (given the later addition of heated water) will be for all chemical mixing, film processing, and washing.

Although faucet-less, the long sink still has a drain. Once into this, I really wished I had roughed in a proper drain pipe in the wall for both sinks. However, in the “design” stage, some months ago, I envisioned hooking up both sinks just like a double kitchen sink into the one drain. What I did not consider, was that in a kitchen sink, the two drains are about 18-24 inches apart, generally symmetrical and on the same level. In this case, the two drains are a bit over 6 feet apart, the long sink bottom is higher than the other sink, and the drain is further from the wall. So, there was a bit of improvisational engineering as I installed this. For one thing, the drain pipe was very heavy in that long of a span, and had to be creatively supported. Also, this long of a drain span needed to be off-level a bit to ensure that it drained properly. (Both would have been easily facilitated had I put it in the wall.) A “tee” and a 45 degree connection and I got it done. But, let us all learn from my mistakes!

I did have enough foresight to put a union connection in the drain pipe between the two sinks so that either sink could be removed separate from the other for maintenance. This has already proved useful since one of the supply hoses for the faucets had the wrong fitting and I had to pull the sink back out to get to it for exchange.

The hot water side is still “prepared for”. The lines are there, but no water – yet. The hot side is capped off below the floor. If and when I put in a heater, all of the lines, electrical and space is there, waiting.

Still have to get the water line to the building and the rain barrel set up for the drain. The rain barrel has been purchased and the drain is run, just need to install and hook-up. I’ve changed my mind about the supply line, at least for now. I had intended to run a pex line underground from the main house. I may do this eventually, but for now, there is a main junction of the sprinkler system not 3 feet from the darkroom building. I am going to tap in there for the time being.

So, it will be operational as it sits, with potential changes in the supply lines, addition of hot water, and maybe another faucet all possible down the road.

The vision thing.

Actually hit a lick on the darkroom this morning. Not much, but at least I started.

In June, I had three consecutive weeks of business travel scheduled and I knew that would put the darkroom project on hold for a bit. However, in the second week, I had some visual symptoms that I recognized from past experience. The following Monday, I visited my ophthalmologist and was promptly sent over to the surgeons. (Didn’t make the third week’s trip.)

I had surgery for a detached retina in my left eye four weeks ago. I am fine, now, but there has been all this time where my vision is effected and my energy level reduced. The vision will clear up and there should be no long term effects.

But, in the meantime, there has been six weeks total with no progress on the darkroom! Re-starting will be slow (still can’t see as well as I’d like), but at least I’m moving again.

I also apologize for not keeping up with the blog. I had an un-moderated comment from a month ago! I’ll do better. (Also, to the commenter: Sorry, but I can’t help you at this time.)

Stay tuned.