New Darkroom/Dimroom

[Ed Bray]

I have almost finished my Darkroom(film)/Dimroom, all that is now left to do is to reinstate my 950nm IR lighting, this will need a little moving around as the shelving for chemicals and equipment have encroached on to their previous mounting areas.

Lots of pictures, but basically it is a 8ft x 8ft x 9ft high room with a 7ft Sink with 3 pairs of taps and an additional washpoint. There is a film/tissue drying cabinet at one end with a portable (not any more) air conditioner mounted above it. The Actinic UV Light Bank has 12x 2ft tubes and give a useable exposure in 6-10 minutes depending on the density of the negative used.

I have tried to use my limited Carbon Printing experience to adapt the room to be most suitable for me, but it is inevitable that I will make changes as my Carbon Printing journey continues.

I have mounted the CPP2 into what was the window recess and plumbed it in although I have made it possible to lift out the CPP2s waste pipe to be able to place it in a bottle if I am planning on reusing a chemical.

View left from door showing end of sink and CPP2 in window recess:



View right from door showing dry side bench:



Above dry side showing materials and Aircon:



Extraction hood above sink to remove acetone fumes when sensitising tissues:



to be continued:

[Ed Bray]

End of sink inside door with storage above and trays stacked for use. Just inside the door is a humidity meter and thermometer:



Chemical and TPE (for Glop making) storage:



CPP2 Plumbing:



Tissue making and Transfer Bench also showing Actinic Lightbank and Film Fridge:

[Ed Bray]

Tissue Making and Transfer station, this is perfectly flat and I use 1.5mm strips of wetted Acrylic sheet to make the frames for my tissues. There is also another sheet of 12mm Float Glass which sandwiches the exposed tissue and final support medium, this then has 4x 5 litre bottles (20kgs in total) place on it to compress the sandwich:



Dim light as it will look during use, this extractor hood has 2x 25w Tungsten lamps in it which provide the light:



Additional light for use in an emergency or if I need to find something I have dropped. This is a clip on lamp with a 25W Tungsten lamp installed:



The UV light source for my Carbon exposures, I am planning on attaching another piece of lightproof material (removed from the window area during the conversion) across the front of the UV light source which will then be sealed with Velcro:



So all in all, I will be able to start using the room soon (have another couple of jobs to do for the wife first though) but do have to make special mention of the anti-fatigue flooring laid in the middle of the room and also the stainless steel wire (curtain wire from Ikea) and clips that do a fine job.

[sanking]

Great shots, Ed, and congratulations on the new Darkroom/Dimroom.

But if my work space looked that neat I would be tempted to never mess it up, just sit down and admire my work and sip on wine or whiskey.

Sandy

[Ed Bray]

Great shots, Ed, and congratulations on the new Darkroom/Dimroom.

But if my work space looked that neat I would be tempted to never mess it up, just sit down and admire my work and sip on wine or whiskey.

Sandy

I just noticed I left a couple of expert drum lids next to the film fridge. So not that neat after all

[Vaughn]

Way cool!

I am starting my dimroom construction this summer, now that I no longer have access to the university darkroom. I hope to have a tissue pouring station that can handle three 14x17 tissues at one time (three 16x20 or perhaps 18x22 pieces of glass). The fume hood for the acetone sensititizing will probably be a setup/take-down affair to be used in the same space as the tissue-pouring (since I have never done both at the same time). This room will also be used for film loading and perhaps some film processing and drying. This is all in the bathroom using a 6 foot counter (small sink at the end of it) over the claw-foot bath tub that will be taken out.

The exposures will take place in another room (a small bedroom). The UV light from units I use are not so easily contained...I'll be running two to three 750W self-ballasted Merc Vapor lamps. I will run the risk of having that room look like a grow-operation!!!

A third room (garage) will have the main sink for print processing, plus the two NuArc units for platinum printing (self-contained units that do not leak UV). The NuArc units run too hot for long exposure times I need for carbon printing.

That's the plan, anyway. I need to do some lifting of the house on a couple corners to level it out more. Some plumbing and electrical work to do handle my needs (the house is a bit over 100 years old -- old for western USA, but not for Europe, of course).

Whoops -- went way over-board on this post! Congrats on a great looking dimroom!

[Ed Bray]

Good luck with your plan Vaughn, I started thinking it would take a couple of weeks and it ended up taking about 3 Months (mainly due to my having to go up a ladder to plumb in the waste pipes and cover the extractor and air con vents), but I am happy with the result at the present time.

My house is just under 80 years old (built in 1936) and it survived the Blitz although the houses directly opposite were completely destroyed and a couple a bit further up the road also suffered badly. Problem with having the Naval Dockyard a couple of miles away.