[pure-silver] Re: other new darkroom
- From: "mail1" <mail1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 21:12:02 -0700
Shannon,
Try and find Kodak books K-13 "Photolab Design for professionals", KW-14
"Building a home Darkroom", and "Making Darkrooms Saferooms" by the National
Press Photographers Association. "Building the home Darkroom" is a very
informative book. It will fill you with ideas and can give you a concept of
the work involved. I am not a fan of concrete floors especially in cold damp
climates.
My dark room project really started from scratch, no water, electricity or
building. Years later of working in my spare time it is done.
It ended in a 10 by 24 foot space with a total sink space of 17 by 3 foot,
and drying cabinets for prints and film on the wet side. The dry side has 3
large cabinets with counter tops, a long commercial drafting table, 2
enlargers mounted on one of the cabinets, and a Durst floor standing
enlarger. The 2 large cabinets with leveling feet have metal roll out
drafting room storage drawers plus larger storage drawers on heavy sliders.
The third smaller cabinet with roll out drawer stores enlarger condensers,
film carriers, lens mounts, etc for the Durst enlarger.
I built all the sink bases, cabinets, sheet rock the ceiling, laid a sub
floor covered with fitted sheet of Congolium flooring overlaid with
interlocking anti fatigue mats. I built a quasi laminar flow exhaust system
in a plenum chamber that runs along the sink area including the print drying
cabinet with it's intake at sink level. The multi-speed 200 to 1500 c.f.m.
exhaust fans are internally mounted in an exhaust stack projecting from the
roof with closing metal louvers. The plenum also houses all the electrical
for the wet side, Lights, clocks, tray heaters, dry mount press, and
microwave, etc. On the surface of the plenum are multiple water temperature
control valves with distribution manifolds for the Jobo processor, film, and
print washers, hand washing, etc. Under the sinks are master water shut off
valves, the inlet manifold with hot and cold water 5 micro filters with
pressure regulators and gauges. This space is also used for tray storage,
nitrogen system, air compressor, fixer silver reclaiming system, water
circulation heater, etc. Although I rarely make prints larger than 11x16 the
print drying cabinet is large enough to dry 30x40 prints and has space for
the dry mount press and microwave on its counter top. The film drying
cabinet has filtered force air heat and is large enough to hang 15 120films.
The dry side has a ceiling soffet running its length. The air inlet is thru
a slot at the juncture of the soffet, and the wall. The air enters through
the roof from a closing louvered inlet with removable filters. I decided
against a room that would maintain a positive pressure ventilation system
because this could lead to contamination of the living area. The Soffet also
contains electrical distribution, and adjustable intensity
florescent-incandescent lighting system providing 50 to 200 foot candle
level on the counter tops. The main power inlet enter on one end of the room
into a master GFI then into a master switch, with two sub switches for the
wet and dry side. The wet side has 16 outlets, and the dry side has 32
outlets. The dry side electrical outlets has been doubled from the original
installation due to addition of enlargers, clocks, power relays, cooling
fans, analyzers, densitometers, electrostatic film cleaners, work lights,
etc.
The dry side wall also has shelves for paper storage etc. The large drafting
table gives me a work area for print finishing and mounting.
Would I do it this way again is a good question? I bought a photo studio and
lab from an estate and needed some place to put it all. Do I need all this
to make photos NO, do I like designing Yes, do I like building NO. Is it a
great lab to work in, YES. My only regret it is not portable, if I ever do
it again I will down size and build it in an Air Stream trailer.
P.S. I live in the wilderness and this is run off generators, inverters, and
a bank of batteries with no solar because I live under the redwood trees.
The water is collected from a mountain spring, pump 300 feet up a mountain
into storage tanks then pumped to the building with a booster pump, and my
wife thinks I'm crazy, but I reality this is what I had to do to live with
her because in her words "I'm not moving".
Jonathan
-----Original Message-----
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shannon Stoney
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 6:55 AM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] other new darkroom
In addition to packing up and moving my city darkroom, I am thinking of
building one in TN in the country. It will be an outbuilding built from
scratch. Any suggestions? I know you have to have a wet side and a
dry side, and I am a stickler for perfect ventilation, and I want to
have a concrete floor. Other than that I am open to suggestions.
--shannon
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