VIDEO: GraLab Timer, disassembled, lubricated and adjusted

[ASA1000]

My early 1970s GraLab timer was sticking, so I serviced it.

https://youtu.be/oPgwhDRPp5s

[Tin Can]

I have taken a few apart, fixer kills them

I dislike a bad clock

Nearly 25 years ago I bought a new one, not for Dark Room, it was before I made a DR

No regrets, still works perfectly

and now in DR

[John Layton]

I have to Graylabs on the shelf above my sink - one newer with the black plastic "toggle-type" switches...the other a real classic (non-grounded side outlet!) with metal switches, which until a few years back also had soft plastic-y material over those switches to protect them from chemicals.

I love my Graylabs!

[ic-racer]

Same, I have one of each. I had them both apart to clean a while back. Couldn't be without them.

234763

[Tin Can]

I used mine inside an old Airstream as 3 minute visual timer

I was doing 100's of 3 min Video/Audios asking anybody how they plan to pay their Student Loans right in front of the College

Nobody was worried...

[John Layton]

I was a dean for a short while at a small college a few years back...and if I knew that someone was conducting such interviews, I'd be more than a little curious about those films! My thought process would be related to my reporting requirements to accreditors, and I'd want to get some idea (from those films) of the extent to which student's responses were consistent (or not) with what they were telling me.

How ironic that I was also chair of the photo dept, and while I'd always held out hope that at least some of my students would go on to develop successful photographic careers (as some did), my greatest concern was that they just learn how to become thoughtful, motivated, and engaging students - able to see that yes...there is life after school, and a meaningful place for them in that life - no matter their actual chosen path, accreditors be dammed!

[Kevin Crisp]

I came to believe that whoever designed the original had to be deaf, or nearly so. The volume level of that buzzer could wake the dead. The later ones have a volume control.

[John Layton]

...anyone here who played basketball back in HS - remember those scoreboard buzzers? my theory - those very same buzzers are in our Graylabs!

[Ulophot]

I was a dean for a short while at a small college a few years back...and if I knew that someone was conducting such interviews, I'd be more than a little curious about those films! My thought process would be related to my reporting requirements to accreditors, and I'd want to get some idea (from those films) of the extent to which student's responses were consistent (or not) with what they were telling me.

How ironic that I was also chair of the photo dept, and while I'd always held out hope that at least some of my students would go on to develop successful photographic careers (as some did), my greatest concern was that they just learn how to become thoughtful, motivated, and engaging students - able to see that yes...there is life after school, and a meaningful place for them in that life - no matter their actual chosen path, accreditors be dammed!

Have you read "Art and Fear" by David Bayles and Ted Orland? A remarkable book that, despite having been written before Al Gore invented the Internet, offers considerable insight and even wisdom, while being written in a style that makes it easy to agree to disagree with one point or another. I highly recommend it, for students-formal and those of us still educating ourselves.

Oh, and I do have a Graylab for timing film development and as a toning time reference. Found a used one in excellent condition for a great price on the auction site several years ago. Buzzer stays off. I was never good at basketball.

[Kevin Crisp]

There's 'loud enough' in the context of a basketball court surrounded by fans, and there's 'loud enough' in a darkroom....

[ASA1000]

I came to believe that whoever designed the original had to be deaf, or nearly so. The volume level of that buzzer could wake the dead. The later ones have a volume control.

This, right here, is the TRUTH! I must have thrown the switch while it was unplugged for cleaning.........BUZZER STILL WORKS!!! OMG!!!