Lets See Your Darkroom

[neil poulsen]

What brand/model/size of sink do you have? It looks like a 6 ft. version of Delta's "The Sink." But, it's hard to tell from the photo.

My 6'x8' darkroom is so small, I have the 4 ft version of "The Sink." And, I've been thinking about up-sizing to the degree that I can.

[Ulophot]

The room, an unused (or, conscripted, depending on one's point of view...) bedroom, is roughly 12-feet square with a small closet. My enlarging table parallels the sink, and I have also a dry-mounting table and an artist's desk crammed in.

The sink is indeed a Delta; I don't know the model. The outside length is 5', internal width is 2', and depth is 7". Having started in darkroom work at age 17 at school, you can imagine my excitement in finally getting a darkroom sink when I was about 48, after decades of carrying buckets and tubs of chemicals and water from and to the bathroom tub. I recall one night, printing for many hours after a long day, and spilling a large tray of fixer on the bathroom floor at around 1 a.m. I felt like screaming in frustration, but the family were all asleep. Anyway, this sink just barely accommodates three 11x14 trays and my red washing tub. The bathroom is on the other side of the wall, which made the plumbing relatively simple. The clear plastic protects the walls and keeps and splashes running back into the sink.

[popdoc]

Well, it is called large-format photography after all.

Andy Warhol has nothing on my C-47s (Cinespeak for clothespins. Etymological theories abound.)

I couldn’t help but turn to google!

http://www.scoutingny.com/its-called-a-c-47-dummy/

[Corran]

Thanks to esearing, I was tipped-off to this 16x20 Calumet Deluxe print washer available locally, or relatively so.

Figured out how to use the sprayer nozzle on my sink connected to a ball valve so I can easily switch between running the washer and the normal sink, which I do a lot to wash my hands and such while working on a print. Mounted it to my backsplash with some U-bolts. Happy with how this came together .

Next project is to put a vent on my darkroom for the new portable A/C I just got.

[Jac@stafford.net]

My darkroom is pretty much a dump made by breaking out a cellar wall into a large cistern. Our house is so small that the darkroom of a sink, a 4x5 enlarger and Focomat IIa has turned into a storage area filled with cases of Edison/Mazda flashbulbs. What to do?

[Duolab123]

Thanks to esearing, I was tipped-off to this 16x20 Calumet Deluxe print washer available locally, or relatively so.

Figured out how to use the sprayer nozzle on my sink connected to a ball valve so I can easily switch between running the washer and the normal sink, which I do a lot to wash my hands and such while working on a print. Mounted it to my backsplash with some U-bolts. Happy with how this came together .

Next project is to put a vent on my darkroom for the new portable A/C I just got.

That's pretty much total GENIUS how you hooked to the sprayer hose, easy to control temperature, if you happen to live where I do where tap water can be 40 F. I have found "local deals" on print washers I have an 8x10, 11x14, and a 20x24. Both of the bigger ones had never been used, I had to pull the protective film off the dividers. I think I have used the big one twice since I got it, but it looks Great on the top shelf
Mike

[Corran]

We definitely don't have issues with 40F tap water here in the deep south!

The folks at Home Depot had NO idea what I was trying to do and were totally confused. It makes sense to me anyway. I never use the sprayer and this was non-destructive so I can put it back if I ever do a simple T on the water line later.

Just today I cut a nice piece of plywood to go under the washer to fully support it. Read about issues with the plexi shattering if not supported properly, and in this photo I only had a couple small supports holding it up to get over the sink lip.

I want a 20x24 at some point! And there is plenty of room on the left to get a larger washer.

[Dhuiting]

I redid my darkroom in 2016, on the cheap except for the West System epoxy for the plywood sink.





The 28" x 84" sink has built-in slope in two directions, so it could be installed level. I kerfed the back of the plywood and inlaid mahogany wedges to form the slopes. The sink aprons have dadoes matched to the slope, so it's well supported around the perimeter. I also did some structural fillets out of epoxy for extra strength.



I made a few base cabinets out of melamine. The open frame of the substrate (doubled-up strips of 3/4 plywood) allows the sloped base to be shimmed underneath for extra support.



The mixing valve isn't ideal. I used some globe valves and a tempering 'anti-sweat' mixer, along with an inline Miller thermometer. It works ok, but the temperature drifts a bit, depending on flow rate. There's a hot water tap that bypasses the tempering valve, and there are taps in two other locations for tempered water. The back splash is Formica over 3/8" plywood. The drain is vented with a Studor Redi-vent, which drains at the same rate as it did unplumbed.

I replaced my crappy VCT floor with plank linoleum. I like the new floor, it has a ship lap profile, with an adhesive edge that seals the both the long and short seams. It's a floating floor, so probably not ideal for really wet locations. I hated the VCT though, unless you buff and wax it regularly it gets pretty gross.

I'm about to use the West System Epoxy for the first time tomorrow to seal up my 12' x 30" plywood sink. I want to make fillets in the corners like you did as well. What's the best technique for doing that?

Also, how much did you use? Based on their coverage info on the West System website a quart covers 90-120 sq feet of porous surface, so it should do my whole sink then. Seems like such a small amount for such a big sink though....

[Colin Graham]

I used a pastry bag- really just a ziplock bag with a corner snipped off. West System also sell fillable caulk tubes that are less messy to deal with. For the fillets, the epoxy was mixed with 406 colloidal silica to a consistency of peanut butter. They sell little plastic fillet tools that work well for smoothing the joints.

The epoxy fillets are only on the bottom of the sink- the inside fillets are actually cant strips ripped from pine. I wet-set those into the base epoxy coat before adding the top coats. I used wooden cant strips because the silica turns the epoxy white and I didn't want to gel coat the sink or tint the epoxy. Here's a picture of the bottom fillets-



My sink is about 84" x 30" x 7", I bought a gallon of epoxy but only used about half for a total of four coats inside and out.

[Dhuiting]

I used a pastry bag- really just a ziplock bag with a corner snipped off. West System also sell fillable caulk tubes that are less messy to deal with. For the fillets, the epoxy was mixed with 406 colloidal silica to a consistency of peanut butter. They sell little plastic fillet tools that work well for smoothing the joints.

The epoxy fillets are only on the bottom of the sink- the inside fillets are actually cant strips ripped from pine. I wet-set those into the base epoxy coat before adding the top coats. I used wooden cant strips because the silica turns the epoxy white and I didn't want to gel coat the sink or tint the epoxy. Here's a picture of the bottom fillets-



My sink is about 84" x 30" x 7", I bought a gallon of epoxy but only used about half for a total of four coats inside and out.

Thanks Colin. Are the cants mostly for decoration? I.e, Do you think I could get away with just letting the epoxy fill up the cracks in the corners and not do any cants or fillets then? I’m planning on staining the 3/4 sanded birch with Minwax gel stain before the epoxy, and then sanding the stain with a fine grit sandpaper so the epoxy will form a bond with the gel stain, then doing 3-4 coats of the west epoxy.


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