Source for 6' Stainless Steel darkroom sink?

**Greg** · 14-Feb-2016, 17:22

Originally Posted by John Olsen

I see beautiful S.S. sinks here in the LFForum sometime and I'll admit they look great. But don't get too hung up on commercial grade materials unless you're actually using highly toxic chemicals on a daily basis.

Agree 100%. I have a friend who put out almost 2 grand for a digital Temp control unit and 2 SS sinks. One for working in and the other to hold his JOBO rotary processor. He only shoots 35mm & 120 B&W film and prints only traditional silver gelatin (RC) B&W prints. And add to that he uses the most environmentally friendly chemistry out there.

**ShannonG** · 15-Feb-2016, 16:19

I have that same complaint about my current stainless steel sink about the temp.loss. I resolved it by putting watter proof heating pads under the trays(the type used for aquariums).But if i had to replace it i would build my own sink much like the one you built.

Originally Posted by Bruce Barlow

I had a beautiful stainless sink, California Stainless, custom-sized, and I know I didn't wait 15 months. They were wonderful to work with, by the way.

I learned to hate it, and had to do things to make it usable. Mainly, the metal sucks heat from trays at an unbelievable rate. I put 2x4 plastic flourescent light diffusion panels on sticks on the bottom to get the trays off the metal. The sticks allowed water to drain underneath.

In my new darkroom I went back to my roots and made a plywood-and-2x sink, 6" at the front, 12" at the rear. Epoxy paint in large quantities. Total cost under $100, and having had one like it looooong ago, I know I'll like it for the rest of this life. I built it to fit the space - exactly. It sits on a chrome wire shelving unit from The Shelving Store, also custom-heigthted for my 6'6" frame. I still have the plastic panels, and may chop one down to use underneath the film developer tray, since I find film to be much more sensitive to temp variation than print developer. I use the Zone VI Compensating Developing Timer, but nevertheless...

I'm happy, and have money left over for film.

**marieho** · 15-Feb-2016, 16:28

Originally Posted by Greg

My present sink is plastic and was purchased at a tag sale for around $20. After using it for a year, think I may have paid too much for it!

Planned on replacing it with a 6 foot Stainless Steel sink. Was directed to Rosy Products:
http://www.rosyproducts.com
and called them (him). Owner and fabricator was just plain pleasant and helpful to talk with. Unfortunately he is healing from an injury/operation and isn't able to fabricate his sinks till later this year.

Any recommendations on where to purchase a 24" x 72" Stainless Steel sink (hopefully with a base/stand)?

thanks

Greg

This can be polished out. But reputable photolab companies like Kreonite used only good stuff

**Greg** · 8-Mar-2016, 16:27

First off thanks for all the responses. Am posting some observations to pass on which hopefully would be of some help to another forum member constructing a sink and /or darkroom.

Decided to go the plywood route for the third time in my life. Local lumber company cut up 3 sheets of exterior grade plywood and delivered it in 2 days. When I was talking with the owner, he said cutting up the plywood was no problem but would take an extra day to do it and he could only guarantee that the dimensions of the plywood to be within the width of their saw blade!!!! No problem there. I had to additionally make only 3 cuts. Owner advised me that marine plywood was an overkill for a darkroom sink especially if it was to be painted over several times (his father was a photographer and he has been in the lumber business for the past 30+? years).

Also advised me to use SCORPION brand ceramic coated Decking screws. They are square drive and not phillips headed. Also drilled holes with a countersink combination drill bit. Amount of screws I used was definitely an overkill (6 inches OC), but not one of them had its head stripped which I'm sure would have happened with phillips head screws.

After making and trying several full size cardboard mock-ups the sink height tuned out to be about 35" and front 40" . 8 foot long sink has a 3/4" tilt side to side to the drain and a 1/4" tilt too the rear of the sink.

Sink is separate from base "cabinet". If I ever want to replace the sink with a SS one, would be a simple thing to do. Realistically probably will never happen.

Paint for interior of sink: Epoxy not possible to do outside up here in the dead of the winter. Will be putting in 2 small ventilation fans to exit outside but once the weather gets warmer. Went to out local paint store and asked them. They advised me to use 2 coats of Rust-oleum Restore 4X Deck Coat paint over Rust-oleum's proprietary primer. Ended up with a heavy coat of primer and putting on 6 coats of Restore 4X Deck paint. Plan on repainting the inside of the sink every year. Paint was so thick, that it naturally caulked up the corner seams with the first coat. Paint odor while drying was absolutely minimal. With winter's low humidity and a temp of 60 degrees in the room, paint dried within 1/2 hour and seams in 2 hours. The sink is not going to be used for holding water, but only for holding trays of liquids and water run off from film/paper washers to drain.

On the bottom right 9 screens 22" x 26" print drying screens sliding in and out on spaced 1x3s under sink. Thought I'd have to install a "computer" fan in the back to dry the prints, but they easily dry overnight.

Drain at one end of the sink. Slopped the sink at 1/8" per foot plus front slightly higher than back. 8 foot sink so right side is 1 inch higher then left side with drain. Have an old black Kodak heavy duty print squeegee that I use to push water into the drain at the end of a darkroom session.

Was blessed to have a 2x2' opening with dry well underneath one end of the sink so directed all sink drainage to it instead of the septic tank. Before installing the cabinet base and kind of sealing it up poured 5 gallons of water all at once into it and essentially it drained instantly.

Darkroom wiring: I wired the darkroom on 2 separate GFI 20 amp circuits.... Total overkill. So had to use 12-2 wire and much harder to wire up the more expensive 20 amp outlets into the 4x4 boxes. Should have gone with 2 separate GFI 15 amp circuits and 14-2 wire... would have been much, much easier.

Suspended ceiling (had to work it around insulated heating/cooling duct system. Room is shy of 9 x 28 feet. One third of "darkroom" is dedicated for camera storage in gray painted steel Kobalt cabinets (LOWES). Installed three 4 bulb fluorescent fixtures. Worked out perfectly. When all are on, the room is totally illuminated. Wish I had installed several rows of LEDs... probably lot brighter and less energy consumption.

Thomas Duplex safelight suspended above sink. Would have loved to center it in the darkroom, but had to work around the duct system. Print inspection light located above the fixer tray, used an older rectangular Kodak safelight unit. Still not sure what bulb to use in it. Older 60w tungsten bulb was aways a bit too Kelvin degrees warm. Halogen bulb better?

Installed a basic Delta 1 temp control unit. Having temp controlled water source a pleasure to use. Shelling out almost 2K for a digital temp control unit just not worth it... not doing E-6 but only B&W processing and printing....and 1/3 of the time making Chemiographs to which temp control is totally irrelevant. Just learned about the Delta Eco 1 Basic Unit Thermostatic Water Controller, Regular Water Flow Temperature Control Unit. Few dollars more and would have gone with it but am satisfied with the current Delta unit.

Initially used CPVC pipe to plumb the darkroom's fixtures. It looked terrible. Replace it with Pex tubing and SS compression fittings. Blue Pex for cold water and red Pex for hot water, love the way it looks. Used 1/2 inch Pex and works fine. 3/4 inch would have been and overkill. Had to run about a final 40 foot run of tubing along the basements ceiling. Water enters darkroom from ceiling and is totally exposed on top of the sink. Was amazed to turn the water on and not a single leak anywhere.

Am more and more concentrating on printing Platinum/Palladium form digital negatives. To this end bought a reconditioned Excalibur food dryer. It has 9 screens 15" x 15" (Fine for my 8x10 Platinum/Palladium prints but too small for printing 11x14 inch Platinum/Palladium... problem to deal with later this year.) Will be using it in far end of the darkroom to dry freshly coated Platinum/Palladium paper. Modified bathroom exit fan with duct to outside behind it to exit heavy metal borne particles safely outside way away from the house.

**stawastawa** · 23-Mar-2016, 13:46

huzzah! congrats and thank you for the detailed report! I have saved it and will hopefully use it before too long!

**Greg** · 7-Aug-2016, 15:52

another update...

Drain exits into an existing dry well opening under sink base. Nothing drains into our septic tank. Has been working 100%, even after a storm dumped several inches of rain.

Plywood sink finally coated with 10 coats of Rust-oleum Restore 4X Deck coat paint. Never had to deal with the fumes of epoxy paint. Have had glass beakers fall and tip over and not but break because of the cushion effect of thick coats of paint. Have yet to have the sink stained by several alternative processes that I regularly use. Doubt if I will have to repaint each year as planned.

Very minimal angle of sink base at 1/8" per running foot towards drain has worked out great. At the end of each session use a black heavy duty Kodak squeegee to push and still standing water towards the drain, but lately have found this to not be necessary.

Never too many shelves above the sink to hold bottles of chemicals within easy reach. Added some.

Rack of 9 drying screens under the sink just a pleasure to use but with stagnant air flow, prints were taking a long time to dry. Will be installing 2 small square fans (from a broken computer) behind the screens to drastically increase the air flow. I had wired and made space for them when constructing the sink base.

Installed a Delta 1 temperature control unit. It works fine but its small lever water flow lever is a bit too touchy.... am looking into replacing it with a much larger lever to fine tune the flow of the water.

Have a JOBO processing unit with all the expert drums up to 11x14". Use it after "photo trips" when I shoot many sheets of film. For daily use, when I shoot only a sheet or two of LF or ULF film have been using a Unicolor processing tube roller with Ilford Cibachrome 8x10 and 11x14 processing tubes. Processing times match times using the JOBO.

Have 2 Gralab timers that glow when all lights are out. Also have 4 power strips in the room that I have blacked out their glowing switches. I have one Kodak safelight turned into a print inspection light that is the last light I turn off and the first one I turn on after being in the dark. For under a dollar purchased a small bottle of glowing paint from a Michael's art supple store. Dipped the hanging end of the ... into the paint several times. Now it is so easy to find it to turn the white light on.

Bought an Arista UV Lightsource (20x24") from Freestyle Photo for alternative process work. What a great unit. Requires no fan to cool it down like some other units. Investigated LED high intensity UV light source units, but they were more than X5 times the price of the Arista. Did plug it into a 4x4 box with switch, 2 outlets, and indicator light. Like to visually (red indicator light) know when the UV light source is on. Unit is so perfectly made , that I could imagine leaving the room with the unit on.

Metal shelving units (LOWES) have 2'x4' composition board shelves. Gallon plastic bottle of distilled water leaked and shelving soaked it up like a sponge and ruined the shelf. Am now painting all composition board shelves with primer and a coat of Rust-oleum Restore 4X Deck coat paint.