Bob,
That's why the old Beseler CB 7s (in 4x5) are hard
to find; all the controls are on the front.
Rich
On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 11:59 AM, Bob Younger <ryounger@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tim,
These are all excellent recommendations and suggestions for Mark and
anyone else building a darkroom.
__________________________________________________________________
One additional item. If you're going to be using (if not now, someday)
large format 4x5 (maybe) or 8x10 (definitely) film in an enlarger, you're
going to want to make your ceiling as high as possible. Or, build a large
box in the ceiling over the enlarger. My DeVere uses all of my 9'10"
ceiling when cranked all the way up. Alternatively, you can get an enlarger
with a crank-down table, but then you're working bent over or on your
knees; and it can be difficult to focus since the knobs are not
always handy to the bed where your easel is.
Bob Younger
On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 11:45 AM, Tim Daneliuk <tundra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 11/13/2017 01:18 PM, Sauerwald Mark (Redacted sender mark_sauerwald
for DMARC) wrote:
I've spent the last 3 years without a darkroom, and am finally gettingclose to being in the dark again.
We bought a new (to us) home, and I am building a darkroom in thebasement. I have a space which is 18' long, 7' wide - so far I have built
the walls, and am in the process of finishing the drywalling. If all goes
well, I will be able to start developing film in December.
developing - it is wood and fiberglass. The other is 5' long, stainless,
The wet side has two sinks - one is 9' long and will be used for print
and I use it for washing and mixing chemicals - I also have a cabinet which
I built to hold my Jobo processor, which drains into the stainless sink.
The Dry side will have work space, and room for a couple of enlargers.
Outside the darkroom itself, I have a bench which has print drying
screens, a dry mount press and storage for negatives.
Once I get close to done, I'll post pictures.
Mark
(Tacoma, WA)
Cool, I know that feeling well of building a darkroom. (See link below)
Some ideas:
- If you still can, tack vapor barrier plastic sheets against the concrete
walls with construction cement to suppress concrete dust and moisture.
I stapled mine to the floor joists above, and then tacked to the wall
from ceiling
to floor, so that the wall studding rested on it.
- It's not a terrible idea to put your wall studs up on cedar shims so you
have 1/4" clearance or so between floor and stud base. Then nail
through those.
That way, a little incidental liquid on the floor will not migrate into
the walls
so easily.
- Never use fiberglass insulation in a basement. The ground will keep
everything right
around 68-70F year around - cool in the summer, warm in the winter.
For my
outer walls that were by concrete, I used the styrofoam sheets made for
basement insulation (the fit exactly between studs) doubled up for a
bit more
insulation. If they get wet, they don't mold like fiberglass.
- Before you put up the drywall, vacuum everything behind, under, along,
above ...
the studs thoroughly to minimize construction dust.
- To minimize drywall dust, wait until the mud has almost set up and then
wipe smooth with a lintless damp rag, or a fine cell sponge. This
minimizes
the amount of seam sanding you have to do.
- Don't nail the drywall up - glue and screw it. It has a far lower
tendency to crack that way.
- You *have* to paint drywall or it will be an eternal source of dust.
Recommend you tint your primer with your final color. New drywall sucks
primer like crazy and primer is a lot cheaper than real paint. I did
this
with 2-3 coats of primer, which meant I only needed one really good
topcoat
of paint.
- On the subject of paint. An eggshell semi-gloss is perfect in the
darkroom. It wipes
up well.
- I put tile down in my darkroom because I wanted the space to have
resale value
when we sold the house. But, if you're going to leave the floor bare
concrete, you shoul
apply some of the mop on acrylic concrete sealer found in the home
improvement store.
- All wet side darkroom outlets should be on a GFI circuit. I've heard
various stories about whether to use GFI outlets or just have a GFI
breaker. Some say the outlets are implicated in catching fire, but
I've never had a problem with mine.
Congrats, good luck, and have a peek below:
https://www.tundraware.com/Photography/Darkroom/
--
------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
Tim Daneliuk tundra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PGP Key: http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/
============================================================
=================================================
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you
subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.
