A new Darkroom!

[Paul Butzi]

congrats on completing the new darkroom!

1. I know that some people like to have their darkrooms dark all the time, but in mine, when I'm done and ready to leave, I just turn on the white lights. The number of times I've wanted to leave the darkroom with light sensitive material out where it could be exposed is very small. Group darkrooms need to be dark, because you can't coordinate when to turn on the white lights with six other workers in the room. But for a solo darkroom? Just turn on the lights.

2. I don't use shelves. I have cabinets, with doors that close. More work to put in (or more money) but dust doesn't accumulate on stuff, and I can clean up the dust in the darkroom just by wiping down all the exposed surfaces with a damp rag. It looks tidy, too, even though some of the cabinets are a complete disaster area inside.

3. I have close cell fatigue matting that I bought at a Lowes hardware store (the combination hardware/liquour/wine/lumber/feed store here in Carnation did not have any fatigue mats!). The closed cell stuff is spongy and makes it easy on your feet, but you can clean up spills easily. In my last darkroom, I had fatigue mats that had large, open cavities which trapped the dirt and made it hard to clean up spills without pulling out the mats and hosing them off. The open holes were also hard on my feet (we don't wear shoes in the house).

Enjoy your new work space!

[Calamity Jane]

Thanks for the thoughts Paul!

Although it's a solo operation, I find myself nipping in and out with stuff still in the trays, so I'll have to stick to safelights.

Thanks for the tips on "fatigue matting"!

Before I constructed in the basement, I looked at the "dust factor" and found the basement is BY FAR the cleanest room in my (country) house (on a gravel road). The top of the hot water tank, which had not been cleaned since I moved in in 1997 , had almost no dust whereas the rest of the house shows a pretty solid layer of brown dust (from the road and the fields) if it is not cleaned every week.

Since our winters are long and cold, I don't want to draw outside air into the darkroom but will instead draw and filter the air from the rest of the house and keep a positive pressure in the basement with an exhaust thru the darkroom.

[Paul Butzi]

CJ-

Ha. Right now, your basement is by far the cleanest room in your house. As soon as you move a box of film and a film holder down there, all the dust within a 5 mile radius will be drawn (like a moth to a flame) into your darkroom. Most of our dust here is a wicked sticky combo of pollen and dust from the road (and our driveway, which has not been treated for dust and thus is just horrible).

The only way I can keep my darkroom reasonably dust free is to wipe surfaces with a damp rag, run an electrostatic air cleaner in there, and declare the dog to be Canis non Grata in the darkroom. The net result is that when I come out of the darkroom I often trip over the dog, who has curled up against the door. My view on this is that if tripping over the dog is the worst thing that happens to me on any given day, it's a darn fine day.

I have had both positive pressure darkrooms (my last one, for instance) and negative pressure darkrooms (my current one). I haven't noticed much difference in the dust but I do note that I get much better airflow from my current darkroom even with just one exhaust fan running (I used the really quiet Panasonic Whisperline fans, which really are quiet compared to some. I hate noise.)

[Calamity Jane]

As soon as you move a box of film and a film holder down there, all the dust within a 5 mile radius will be drawn (like a moth to a flame) into your darkroom.

BAW HAW HA HA!

I hope you're right! Then I wont have to clean the main floor nearly as much!

[Hans Berkhout]

I didn't read all of the above but; avoid having fluorescent tubes in the darkroom. They glow when you want to be in total darkness, and they fool you when looking at prints. The red(?) safety sleeves to supposedly turn them into safelights create fogging of your paper.

[Frank Bagbey]

Use as small a light bulb as you can that you can easily reach, for your white light. Shut your eyes when you turn the light on for a second, before you examine a print or whatever. Use a white tray to help you see development in the tray. Use plenty of safelights and run a test to make sure they are all safe. There is no need to work in a "darkroom". Play your favorite music! These tips will help you spend hours in the darkroom and not realize it.

[Calamity Jane]

Moved into the new darkroom this week, got some shelves up today, installed the low voltage lighting control and vacuumed EVERYTHING including the dog :-) I have had the chance to run some films and prints so it's already "broken in"

I really like having lots of space! 12x16 is SUCH an improvement over 8x10! It was quite easy to blackout the entire basement but I will admit, it is awfully easy to get lost between the darkroom (at one end) and the baffled entry (at the other) so I ran a safelight circuit over to the entranceway. With such a large space, I now have to buy more safelight bulbs ;-)

I have reserved one wall for my Jobo CPA-2 (which will be here next weekend) and I'll build a table with cupboards underneath for it.

http://geocities.com/winnonad/newdarkroom/nd3.html

Thank you all for your input with my project - you helped me avoid some mistakes. The total cost ran about $800.