Update, October 2013 - new cabinet and flatfile

The darkroom has been operational for almost 3 years.  I make small changes all the time, but this recent one was more involved and precipitated by the acquisition of a small, 5 drawer flat file.  The flat file came from my wife's studio after she acquired a much larger 20 drawer unit!

I initially set it over in a corner and thought I'd just set the dry mount press on top of it.  However, the heights weren't right and I was a little afraid the weight of the press would eventually sag the top of the flat file.  So, I have re-arranged the dry side of the darkroom, and built a new under-cabinet as a stand for the flat file, which brings it up to counter height.  The dry mount press now sits on the older (and very sturdy) cabinet, and all is well.

Here is the original floor plan of the darkroom:

And here is the revised layout:

In addition to this latest change, you can see that the two sets of shelves have been eliminated.  And yes, the door does bump the small refrigerator. It's just a coincidence, but the drawing is accurate.

The new cabinet was constructed to match the others, as all were built for this darkroom.

The raw material

The raw material was white melamine.  This material is stable, fairly cheap, and works fine for utility uses.  Since it is essentially particle board, however, you can't get it wet.  Dry side is fine.  I was fortunate that I was able to draw up the plans and get all the parts but one out of one new 4x8 sheet of material.  The one remaining part came out of scrap from prior projects.

Cuts had to be planned carefully.  There is an old carpenter's adage: "measure twice, cut once."  I measure 2 or 3 times, and this is after thinking the whole project through many times.  This was the only way to ensure that I got all of the pieces out of the material I had, since there was negligible scrap and only about 3/4" room for errors.

The larger cuts of the big sheet were done with a track saw.  I am so glad that I invested in this tool back when I made the first cabinets.  It is much safer than a table saw and more accurate than using a plain circular saw.

the first cross cut

all the parts cut out

Assembly was done with pocket screws.  I have a jig that makes drilling the pocket holes easy enough, and a small cordless driver makes the job go pretty fast.

The cabinet was sized to just fit under the flat file, and then to raise the flat file to the right height so that another piece of the melamine on top as a "countertop" would match the height of the other cabinet surfaces.  I was fortunate to find sturdy and pre-made plastic drawers that would just fit, and adjusted the shelf spacing to accommodate them.

Everything is in place and I'll be back to my backlog of printing in no time.

The new "dry side"

It’s time I made an update to the darkroom blog after a bit over a year. Still not doing as much work out there as I thought, but I retired this year so things will pick up. From the post on October 31 of last year:

Still to be done:

• Film drying rack.
• Make a frame for the print drying racks.
• Get a new air compressor.
• Better tray storage.
• Storage for the enlarger lenses.

The film and print drying racks were done timely, as was the procurement of the air compressor. Alas, the enlarger lenses are still in a cardboard box and the trays are still haphazardly stacked under the sink.

I’ve also discovered a new light leak due to cracked seams due to the building shifting. These things are inevitable and unavoidable; and easily fixed with some caulk and paint, but …

It never ends …

Do blogs ever end?

Sadly, most are just abandoned. However, this blog was created to document the design and building of my darkroom; and as the darkroom is essentially finished, the blog must come to an end. I plan to leave it up as a record, just without any additional posts.

Visitors

I have been working and/or out of town since that roll of film was developed.  But, back in town on a weekend for a change, I had two other friend-photographers over to look at the darkroom this morning.  One brought me a darkroom-warming present of some developer.  Good time had by all.

There was a third visitor - a wasp!  It must have come in through the air conditioner.  It stayed up around the ceiling and didn't bother us.  I left the poor thing in there so it could die a natural death, and later I shall dispose of the body properly.

Back in the saddle again …

Yes sir, friends and neighbors, that is, indeed, freshly processed film in the wash! (Tri-X in D76). The darkroom is operational!

It’s been less than a quiet week, but I got a few things done. After spending half the week out of town, then returning to a veterinary emergency and other domestic occurrences, I still managed to mix some chemistry and develop a roll of film.

In other darkroom news, the stereo is also up and running, although I haven’t hooked up the sub-woofer yet. When I got the CD player out of the closet, I couldn’t locate the power cord for it. No big deal, less than $3 at the local electronics store obtained another. This expenditure, of course, assured that I would find the original the following day!

Did a little yard maintenance, worked in the shop some, and still managed to soup some film.

Did I mention that I developed a roll of film?

The table

Got the worktable in place.

I had always intended to have a work surface in this corner. The original plan was to build it myself, just as I had built the other cabinets on the dry side. However, a couple of weekends ago my wife and I were shopping and came across one of those stainless steel work tables of the type that are in restaurant kitchens. It was the exact right size and looked perfect for the job. However, it was a bit pricy.

Since I was so close to finishing the darkroom, and this would save me several days of labor, and part of the cost would be absorbed by not having to buy materials, I inquired about the table. The question was whether or not the seller could disassemble it. No, was the answer, it doesn’t come apart. Well, I knew better, but this particular one was not going home with me.

A little internet research, and I came up with local suppliers of similar, if perhaps lesser quality, tables for about half the price of the used one that I had seen, and they came unassembled. Bingo! A stainless and very sturdy work surface.

When I was laying out the plan for the darkroom, lo, these many months ago, this was to be a combination desk, and negative prep area. Choosing negatives, cleaning them, mounting in the carriers, that sort of thing. At the time, I was not sure if the dry mount press would go in the darkroom itself. I have since decided that the press should go in the darkroom, since its principle duty is to flatten fiber prints.

Thus, this corner of the darkroom has evolved to be the alpha and omega of the printing process. The negatives start here, and the dry prints will end up in the yet to be built print racks on the shelf beneath the table. Everything else runs in a nice clockwise motion around the room.

You would think I had planned it …

Still to be done:

• Film drying rack.
• Make a frame for the print drying racks.
• Get a new air compressor.
• Better tray storage.
• Storage for the enlarger lenses.

PS:  I recently got a "comment" on a post from back in May ("Another darkroom construction blogger").  It included a link to a darkroom blog by a photographer in France.  The blog is in English.  I added it to the other links page.

What's left (and what's still not right)

In any project that has gone on for way over the expected time, there usually comes a point where you just get tired of it. It doesn’t matter how much you want the project to be finished, or more importantly, want the final result of the project ( a working darkroom in this case), you are simply tired of the whole ordeal.

This darkroom is so close now, as to now be as frustrating as were all of the weeks and then months that passed while it was still so far from finished.

(Excuse the bad photoshop merge - I just don't put much effort into it.)

Where am I today? The safelights are up and wired. Testing them will be the first thing I do once I feel like putting chemistry in trays. All of the fixtures are in except for a work table. It goes where the chair is sitting under the shelves.  My plan had always been to build one, but in the interest of time and not much more money, I have decided to purchase one, as previously discussed.

So, what’s left to do?

There’s really nothing that would prevent me from working; not even the absence of a “work table”. However, I learned from my father’s wisdom and experience that there was often nothing more permanent then a temporary solution. So, I really want to get everything done. Granted, I may, and probably will, change and adjust things down the road, but starting without everything right now is not the answer.

Priorities:

• I need to decide where to put up a rack to hang film to dry. (I have the rack)
• Get the heater up and running. (Also already procured – but it may get down in the 40s this week!)
• Make a frame for the print drying racks (old one didn’t survive the tear down of the last darkroom.)
• Acquire the final fixture – a work table - so that I have a place for the light box.

Secondary importance, but I want it done:

• Get a new air compressor (see previous blog post)
• Get a stereo receiver (this is a story all to itself – maybe a future post)

And last – things that might wait, but are still on the must do list:

• Better tray storage – right now they’re just stacked under the long sink. Need some racks or dividers or something.
• Storage for the enlarger lenses.

And, of course, there are the dozens of little tools and do-dads that probably aren't in their final resting place.  They'll get moved around and settle eventually.  Almost there - almost!

Oops

For dusting negatives, I have been using an old paint compressor that belonged to my Dad. This thing is ancient and may actually be older than me. It had gotten to the point where it only put out about 40 psi - useless for paint, but perfect for dusting negs.

Like everything else from the darkroom, it has been idle for about a year and a half, but I took it into the new darkroom yesterday and cranked it up. The first time it came on, it didn’t sound right. I shut the switch off and started it again. This time, just a buzz for two seconds and then: SMOKE!

The old machine finally froze up. It’s not worth trying to fix. It has more sentimental value than anything. However, it doesn’t have enough sentimental value to keep. So long.

Now to get the smoke smell out of the darkroom and buy a small fire extinguisher.

Done! (Almost)

Water – more or less.

More in the sink – less on the floor.

In fact, none on the floor so far!

I am extremely pleased to announce that I have plumbing. One week later than I had anticipated the announcement (see prior post), and weeks (months) later than I would have liked.

I probably should have done this in the first place; but then hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? Barely $15 worth of parts and material, and not too much time, and I had faucets like I want them. With no leaks!

After last week’s experience of cleaning up a bit of water with the old faucets, I also was determined to test the new ones outside before I installed them in the darkroom. Hooked up to a garden hose, the only leak was in one faucet, which was just not tight enough. A half twist with a wrench and it was fine. None of the PVC glue joints leaked, although I am very paranoid about that. I had one joint leak (out of several dozen) once before, and I guess that’s it. That leak was repaired with a small amount of epoxy, so it’s never the end of the world.

Once fastened down in the darkroom and hooked up to the water line, everything worked great! I can’t tell you what a relief that was. So different from a week ago.  I made a couple of small shelf supports for the pipe and faucets. In the prior darkroom, I had attached all of this to a board on the wall, as is traditional. I did have some trouble with the PVC pipes twisting from the weight of the brass faucets, and had to get creative. This time, I decided to be “creative’ and give them some support in the way of shallow shelves. This also allowed the faucets to be a couple of inches further out over the sinks. Seems to work fine.

No hot water yet, but that was planned. The pipes are there when and if I decide to add a heater. So now all that’s left are the dozens of little things. As I’ve said, the darkroom will never be completely “finished”, since I’m always rearranging something. But, there does reach a point of stability where it is fully functional. I could actually work now, but the place is a mess and I’ll wait a bit.

Still need to put up a few more shelves; place the safelights (and test); maybe another task light or two; build the frame for the print drying racks; and, get the stereo going! Next weekend I’m going shopping for the work table. I was going to build one myself, but an analysis of time and material costs vs. just buying something has pushed me to retail. Down the road, I want to fabricate more elaborate storage for things like enlarger lenses and negative carriers, which I can’t really buy retail, but that can wait.

I’m to the point now where I can schedule the opening. Woo hoo!

Water, water everywhere …

S. T. Coleridge wrote:

“Water, water, everywhere,

     And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

     Nor any drop to drink.”

My version:

Water, water everywhere,

     Since all the fittings leak;

Water, water everywhere,

     I hate this god damned sink!

I had anticipated announcing in this blog, this very weekend, that my darkroom was fully functional, if not totally complete. It may never be totally complete, as many of us are always tinkering, but that’s another issue. However, I thought I had finished all of the plumbing and once I turned on the water, I could at least process film! This was to be a milestone! Well, it was not to be.

Sometime in 2008, I bought out a commercial photographer who had gone completely digital and was selling his darkroom – everything but the room itself. I got a Beseler 4x5 enlarger, several Componon lenses, trays (up to 20x24), tanks, reels, washers, timer, and a partridge in a pear tree. Actually no birds, but there was a 4 ft. temp control sink! The sink was filthy, but I cleaned it up and put it in storage, since there was no room for it in the old house’s darkroom. Someday I would expand. I sold the enlarger lenses and got all my money back, so all this stuff was, well, free.

Beware of cheap/free stuff. The enlarger and lenses were fine, actually, but much of the rest of the stuff was in various stages of decrepitude. All of the trays are/were filthy, but I still have them, just haven’t cleaned (or needed) them yet. I threw out half of the steel developing reels, since they were bent. I actually left several boxes of stuff at the guy’s studio that were in such bad shape as to only be described as trash.

Anyway, the sink, I thought at the time, was a steal. These things are expensive. This is why I held on to it even when I had no room. When fate stepped in and caused me to have to build a much larger darkroom, the sink’s true purpose was revealed.

As you can see from the photo, there is a hot and cold mixing valve, an inline thermometer, and three faucets. All of this is connected in back of the sink by standard faucet supply hoses. Now, I am thrilled to have another 4 feet of sink, and the hot/cold mechanism is just bonus – especially considering that I am not even going to have hot water initially.

The metal stand was badly corroded. (Should have been a sign.) I took it all apart, sanded and repainted, and replaced all of the connecting bolts with brass, to avoid corrosion problems in the future. The stand looks fabulous! There was a pinhole in the sink that I repaired with a little epoxy. It seems to be fine and does not leak. What I did not do, is any rehab on the plumbing. I definitely should have done a check of all this stuff before I installed it upstairs in the darkroom. When I put water to this thing, it was squirting everywhere!

OK, pulled the sink out from the wall and determined that the leak in back of the sink was in the vicinity of only in one hose, it was just a lot of water. After cleaning up the water, I re-did the connection, which appeared loose, and tried again. This time I could see the hole in the hose! Cleaned up the new water and called it a night.

Things often look better in the morning, and that morning I got a new hose and installed it. When I turned on the water, no leaks! That is, there were none that weren’t going into the sink. The mixing valve was dripping, but at least it was going into the sink and down the drain. OK, I can live with that. When I turned on any of the faucets, the thermometer leaked. OK, live with that, too. But the worst was the faucets themselves. All three leaked out of the handle when turned on and sprayed at weird angles.

The weird angles was because of the anti-siphon valves installed on the end of each faucet. Not only did these leak and reduce the water flow, but when I put a hose on one of then, there was no water at all. OK, I’ll just take them off. They are not needed. There is a set screw on the valve. The first one I attempted to remove broke off rather than turn! All of this stuff is corroded! I give up.

I am still going to use this sink! It holds water and the drain works fine. But, I am going to start from scratch as if I had just the sink and it was not already plumbed. This will be simpler and cheaper than trying to fix and/or replace all of the corroded hardware built into the sink, and will be more versatile and practical for what I need anyway. I should have done this initially, but it seemed easier just to use what was there. The mistake I made was not testing “what was there” in the first place. Oh, well. Stay tuned.

New link

New link to a website/blog about analog photography.  He has a separate thread going on building a darkroom, complete with an 8x10 enlarger!

http://www.darkroomguide.com/

(D)rain barrel

I discussed this a while back, but here’s a photo of the rain barrel turned drain barrel.

In the old darkroom I had a 200 gallon stock tank under the building that the darkroom sink drained into. Periodically, I would empty the tank, but not every darkroom session. In any event, I could not see inside the tank, so I don’t know if it ever got full.

I don’t know how the 55 gallon barrel will compare. At least I can see how much water is in the barrel. If it proves to be inadequate, I can add more barrels and connect them together.

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.

The Woodpecker

A few years ago, at the old house, there was an incident with a woodpecker who attacked rotting siding on the building housing my darkroom and my wife's studio.  We had built this building on the back of our lot.  The siding was an alleged high-tech engineered material that would not rot or deteriorate.  Yeah, right.  Note the green mold, as well as the holes.

The rot attracted the bird, and the bird drilled numerous holes.  I filled the holes with expanding foam sealant as a temporary measure, and then had to cover the rotted area with cedar boards.  At least the cedar matched the rest of the trim on the building and once it weathered it looked as if it had always been there.  Just before we moved last year, we painted the building and it looked super ...

The incident, for some inexplicable reason, awakened the inner plagiarist in me; and I re-fashioned Poe's The Raven into The Woodpecker.  See the link to the right under "pages".

Only tangentially related to building the new darkroom, but hey.  Enjoy ...